journeys and photography

Tomorrow Annette leaves for regional Victoria (via Canberra), taking the long hot journey by car, so she can be around for the opening of her exhibition, The Romance of Death, at Horsham Regional Art Gallery.

As well as 30 photographs which she took in Paris cemeteries between 2004 and 2007, the show will include some poems I wrote on the theme during that period. We have also made a chapbook to accompany the exhibition including a hand-printed photo on each cover, plus the text of the poems on the wall, and a number of others. Here's one poem.

Works & Days

These unexpected masterpieces
statues and companions
balconies of angels
linked by cement and passions
the falling autumn

The lost genius of air
still penetrates
broken stones and other works

As on any street
the guarantee of beauty lies around
the crystallised dust
empty bottles
dead chrysanthemums

Mutability is no harder
than stained marble
a pile of petals


Cimetière Montparnasse


If anyone is around that area of the country over the next two months, you should check it out. Some of the earliest photographs in the series can be seen on Annette's web site.


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