I have a project which focuses on identifiers – how people make, use,
and receive them – especially in groups. The base of my submission is part of
that project – two photographs of wall vaults – #5 and #7 – at Lafayette
Cemetery #1 in New Orleans. I took the
pics in black and white years ago. The vaults are unnamed. The records of the cemetery give no information
about the occupants. 7 and 11 are thought
to be lucky numbers, and this small irony identifies and groups the two
unknowns. Since taking them, I’ve paired
the images in formal black and white prints.
The late Susan Sontag famously said that all photographs are memento
mori. Cemetery photographs are memento
mori of memento mori.
I wanted to create an image for Independence Day 2025. As a lawyer who spent most of the 70s
representing poor people in civil rights cases, I cherish our Constitution and
its Bill of Rights. July 4, 2025, finds
them under siege. My piece marries the
wall vaults to variations of the red, white, and blue.
