Remnants of the Departed


  • Photographer
    Robb Johnson
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    2012

Remnants of the Departed is a portrayl of a ‘city of angels’, a cemetery located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As I walked this ‘city’ with my camera, I recalled the words William Shakespeare wrote: “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances. . . ” he spoke of a journey, a journey we are all on. Remnants of the Departed are private visual diaries of anonymous players who have stepped off their stage of coropreal reality and onto another reality path of their journey in the universe. These visual diaries are about people who lived in Buenos Aires Argentina. The time frames of their lives range from around 1820 to the present. Their remnants have been placed in sepulchers in a cemetery, created around a church and convent, Our Lady of Pilar, built in 1732. The order was disbanded in 1822 and the garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. Today it is known as the Recoleta Cemetery; 14 acres in the upscale Recoleta barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The property contains 4691 vaults, all above ground, and is the final resting place of many of Argentina's wealthiest and most famous families and personages. It is a two square block plot of land, filled border to border with private mausoleums; which includes Argentina’s most famous heroine, Evita Peron. But Remnants of the Departed is not about the famous of Argentina. It is about the personal visual diaries all these individuals had and the remnants both literal and allegorical left as a remembrance of their journey here. It is common for many members; generations even, of the same family to occupy one mausoleum. Many are well cared for by those who remember, but some of the fallen no longer have families to care for their crypts and decay can be found here and there. Remnants of the Departed is a photographic entry into a different realm, where sensitive subjects are interpreted with emphasis on the quiet beautiy and memories of those who have gone before.

Story

Remnants of the Departed is a portrayl of a ‘city of angels’, a cemetery located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

As I walked this ‘city’ with my camera, I recalled the words William Shakespeare wrote: “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances. . . ” he spoke of a journey, a journey we are all on.

Remnants of the Departed are private visual diaries of anonymous players who have stepped off their stage of coropreal reality and onto another reality path of their journey in the universe.
These visual diaries are about people who lived in Buenos Aires Argentina. The time frames of their lives range from around 1820 to the present. Their remnants have been placed in sepulchers in a cemetery, created around a church and convent, Our Lady of Pilar, built in 1732. The order was disbanded in 1822 and the garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Today it is known as the Recoleta Cemetery; 14 acres in the upscale Recoleta barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The property contains 4691 vaults, all above ground, and is the final resting place of many of Argentina's wealthiest and most famous families and personages. It is a two square block plot of land, filled border to border with private mausoleums; which includes Argentina’s most famous heroine, Evita Peron.
But Remnants of the Departed is not about the famous of Argentina. It is about the personal visual diaries all these individuals had and the remnants both literal and allegorical left as a remembrance of their journey here.
It is common for many members; generations even, of the same family to occupy one mausoleum. Many are well cared for by those who remember, but some of the fallen no longer have families to care for their crypts and decay can be found here and there.
Remnants of the Departed is a photographic entry into a different realm, where sensitive subjects are interpreted with emphasis on the quiet beautiy and memories of those who have gone before.

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