Cemetery Art 6/21/12

Stories in Stone in Pictures

By John Thomas Grant

This week is the Association of Gravestone Studies Conference in New Jersey at Monmouth University. It was my offer to lead a cemetery art photography field class at the nearby Old Tennent Cemetery in, I believe, Manalapan, N.J.

It should be an interesting study because, just how do you really teach someone to be an artist? You can teach them just what art is, the history and tools of art, of course, but to be an artist? That’s a whole other matter.

Douglas Keister, in the Forward of my book “Final Thoughts” writes, “Stand behind John Grant and peer over his shoulder with your own camera and capture the same image. Your image may be similar, but won’t be the same. Guaranteed.” Why? Simple… I’m me! And, thinking about it, the same applies to everyone. After all, we are each and everyone, individuals, and I could be the one looking over your shoulder.

Art is an amalgamation of character, intellect and experience.

Character - the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

Intellect - the power or faculty of the mind by which one knows or understands, as distinguished from that by which one feels and that by which one wills; the understanding; the faculty of thinking and acquiring knowledge.

Experience - knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone.

Unless I am drastically wrong and/or, you are the subject of one of my pieces, all of you, in some form of the above, have all three requirements to be a good, if not great, artist. But first, you will have to want to expose your ‘inner’ self to some degree. Art is not merely the expression of the aesthetic, but the expression of the individual emotion. We are all artists, and many of you don’t even know it. I certainly did not when I started this adventure some seven year ago. I have come to find out otherwise.

Douglas, earlier in the Forward states, “Grant takes what he sees with his eyes and feels with his heart and soul and somehow magically extracts the essence of his subject and makes a picture. His subjects come alive.” Stories in Stone in Pictures, if you’ll permit me.

Yes, I take an accounting of the lighting, even the season. Yes, I take an accounting of the foreground, the background, exposure and DOF, all the little details that make a great photo but, more than that, I take an accounting of me. It’s just the way it has been from the beginning. Cemeteries, to me, are much more than just properties of dirt and stone, even history. They’re a home, a place, and people with names and relationships are its citizens. Accept it as such; treat it, as such, and the blossoming of your cemetery art will begin.

Douglas finalizes with, “John Grant’s photographs show us that cemeteries may be the realm of the dead, but they are for the living. Get thee to a cemetery. And see it through John Grant’s eyes and heart. View the photographs in Final Thoughts with your heart. They do not speak of death. They most assuredly speak of life.”

John Thomas Grant’s first book - “Final Thoughts: Eternal Beauty in Stone” - featuring his cemetery photography, is now available online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or in bookstores nationwide. Publisher – Schiffer Publishing.

John’s work can be viewed at www.johnthomasgrant.com. John is a partner with historical reenactor/lecturer, Lisa Griffiths-Lewis, at The Passion Projects, LLC. His email address is – jtgrant19@gmail.com.