It began
innocently enough with a single stone- the stone that launched me on a journey to a thousand cemeteries. Not quite a thousand-yet.
Introducing the preface of their fascinating volume on the art of early New England stonecarving, Memorials for Children of Change, authors Tashijan wrote that their study developed from "a nearly maniacal passion to see all 17th and 18th century gravestones in New England- after seeing the first one". Musing upon their quote, already deep into my personal goal of seeing -and photographing- pioneer 19th century gravestones in southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa, I experienced no modest relief. I was not the lone maniac taphophile consumed with unbridled passion for tombstones.
As long as there is breath, and death, we who take up the task of taphophilia find ourselves inexplicably "fallen in the dreams of the ever-living"
-
capturing for posterity the history, the art, and the mystery of souls who
"breathe on the tarnished mirror of the world, and then smooth out with ivory hands and sigh."
[W.B.Yeats]