Page 6 - Demo

4As a latter-day Thomas Gray, John Bower has wandered the country graveyards of Southern Indiana and offers us, in this book, a photographic meditation on the human response to death. Dorothea Lange, the great documentarian, once said, %u201cThe camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.%u201d Surely, Bower%u2019s work proves her point. Perhaps because of our modern culture%u2019s discomfort with the idea of death, perhaps because of a preoccupation with the graves of our own loved ones, few of us have invested the time to look intently at this cemetery art.John Bower has done that for us. With a clear eye and pure technique, he has studied hundreds of cemetery statues. With angle, framing, depth of field, and camera distance, he isolates each one, showing us what makes it unique. Here, an angel framed against a cloudy sky inscribes a name in the Book of Life. Over there, a Saint Christopher-like fire fighter carries a cherubic infant. In another corner, lies a prostrate lion, his massive head weighted down with grief. Towering on his pedestal, Saint Michael%u2014curiously missing his sword%u2014bestrides the vanquished dragon. And what shall we say of the girl who died on the cusp of womanhood? Her fine features, long braided hair, ankle-top shoes, and bouquet of flowers reveal her character. But the most telling detail is her left knee, slightly bent as if ready to take the next step forward.These statues tell us much about the people who erected them. Some, no doubt, were commissioned by the subjects themselves before their deaths. Most were probably erected by loved ones to memorialize a parent or child. All of them testify to the human struggle against oblivion. Against that pitch-black, starless sky they shout, %u201cI was here. I did live a life. I knew joy and struggle, heartache and accomplishment. I deserve to be remembered.%u201dBeyond the deceased and their loved ones, a third group of people is present in this book. These photographs witness the proud and loving craft of the stone cutters and bronze fabricators who fashioned the sculptures. Bower%u2019s photographic craft is a fitting tribute to the work of these artisans.For me the most poignant of these images shows a seated boy, gazing slightly upward. The real child suffered an early death; his stone effigy suffers a prolonged demise. The left hand is missing. The jacket and trousers are dotted with clumps of moss. A leprous weathering has eroded the stone until the eyes and lips recede into the face. Notwithstanding this deterioration, the statue conveys a strong sense of life. I can feel the boy it represents. Despite his fancy bow tie, ruffled shirt and serious demeanor, I know he was a real boy, who, like Booth Tarkington%u2019s Penrod, ran and joked and played throughout his few short years. With Thomas Gray, I look at this statue and sigh for a life lost too soon. With John Bower, I look at all these obituaries in stone and bronze and celebrate the human spirit that produced them.I will never see cemeteries the same way again.Claude CookmanIndiana University