Stills. Cyanotype on paper.

Series of 5 editions of 6.

2021

For this series of cyanotypes, I used images I took of statues in cemeteries. The first 3 were taken in Highgate cemetery on a day I was waiting for test results from the nearby Whittington hospital (who is morbid enough to while away time waiting for test results in a graveyard?), the next 2 in the Batignolles cemetery in Paris where I went to see the grave of French poet Paul Verlaine. I am however planning to go and take more in a few other cemeteries when I can, to add to the collection.

Cemetery images are a recurring motif in certain part of the art and music world (such as the beautiful cover of Joy Division’s “Closer”), but when working on these cyanotypes, I was not seeking the same gloominess or pathos that these images can convey. I felt the images can convey a certain stillness and peace, the depth of the blue like a dive into a silent but welcoming world, like a pause in an otherwise frenzied life.

In a place of eternal rest, I saw glimpses of still lives.