Flores para los Muertos, Photograhs of the Historic Key West Cemetery (English and Spanish Edition) - Hardcover
The photographs in this beautiful hard cover coffee table book represent Michael A. Philip's long fascination with Key West's historic cemetery (c.1847) located in the center of Old Town. The whitewashed aboveground tombs and statues attract thousands of tourists each year. What interests Philip are the flowers and offerings mourners leave behind. His vibrant photographs were inspired by the still-life paintings of the Dutch Masters whose attention to color, composition, and 'incidental' objects reveal important clues about their subjects' lives. The book with dust jacket is printed in full color on archival, high quality, acid free, coated matte photographic paper with chemical free ink. The book's 6x9 inch format has an intimate feel. Alongside the photographs, poetry in Spanish with English translation by the Cuban poet Aicercul give voice to Philip's photographic journey. This is a book you will enjoy again and again.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Michael A. Philip is an architectural photographer who has lived in Key West since 1991. The photographs in this book represent his growing portfolio of award-winning fine art images.
Review:
THREE ARTISTS CREATE SMALL VISUAL TREASURE
Flores para los Muertos (Flowers for the Dead) is a 6 x 9 inch visual treasure. The book presents a grouping of photographs by Michael A. Philip of flowers on tombs in the Key West Cemetery. Structuring the book are three poems by the Cuban poet, Aicercul, with titles of the three stages of grief: Flowers, Exile, and Repose. Maureen Tracy Venti, the publisher, assembled and ordered the material. Working with beautiful images and touching poetry, she created this sensitive, perceptive, and moving experience.
Michael A. Philip photographs are at the heart of the book. He took them from 2006-2008 and had a popular exhibition of the work at The Studios of Key West. That exhibit was structured first by the freshness and then two later stages showing the gradual decaying of the flowers. The effects of time gave coherence to the three large groupings of images. Also in three parts, the present collection follows the progress of three poems by Aicercul (in Spanish but translated by the author, Philip, and Venti). The focus is the effects of time, not on the flowers, but on the mourner: flowers that were exchanged with the loved one in life and now in death; the flowers of mourning caused by the separation, the exile of the mourner from the mourned. And the flowers of acceptance, those that await the loved one s body with the cold marble face in the cemetery of exile. The flowers dramatize the words of the poem. The photographs and the poetry become actors in a play that many of us act out several times in our lives. The beginning lines of Flores, the first poem, are: So many flowers you gave me . . . Fragrances that still perfume my thoughts. Then there are several images of incredibly beautiful flowers, primarily lilies and roses, in strong colors of blue, yellow, red, and white bunches of flowers . . . Fade in sadness On your cold marble face. And the images shift to flowers with spots or other signs of decay. The last image of that first section shows a fallen vase with flowers in disarray. The images in the second section, Exile, are in black and white. The first is a winged angel-child; her eyes are closed; her face, solemn. The last image of the third section, Repose, is of a rectangular tomb, empty except for on bunch of flowers at the front. The tomb and flowers are awaiting your beautiful body. The third major creator of this thoughtful exploration of grief is the publisher, Maureen Tracy Venti. Besides doing the regular work of a publisher deciding on paper, colors and standards of printing, and then seeing the book through the press, Venti also acted as the editor. She chose the pictures, their order, and the placement of the lines of the poetry in the unfolding drama of images and words.
After experiencing the entire book, it is useful to return to the first picture, which is a prelude to the action. The image has a dark background. On the ground next to a tomb are dead leaves and faded flowers. Then one notices a circular series of objects tinted with blue light: two fallen vases, debris, and a weathered plastic cup. In the lower right is a group of brightly colored red and yellow flowers. In the top left is a ceramic box decorated with two crosses: one on the front of the box; the other rising on the top. At the foot of this cross are small ceramic flowers, an open bible, and a dove. This picture introduces us to the themes of the images and poems: life overcome by death, beauty subject to decay, life like beauty temporary and uncertain. The images on the ceramic box suggest that religion is the only solace in this world of transience and decay. But the Catholic culture that affirms these sad truths also promises a blessed ending of peace, hope, and love. --Joel Blair, Solares Hill
Michael A. Philip thoroughly explored the cemetery, finding themes within it. It made a story emerge that wasn't just about the individuals, but the whole place, and the whole group of the dead. I also had this thought that it blurred the distinction between the dead and the memory of the dead. That the memory, or the way people remember someone, really does take on an embodiment of that person. The flowers remind me of Dutch still lifes... Philip's architecture eye really showed. The crypts, the rows of tombs, were rendered like houses, like neighborhoods. --Margit Bisztray
Flores para los Muertos (Flowers for the Dead) is a 6 x 9 inch visual treasure. The book presents a grouping of photographs by Michael A. Philip of flowers on tombs in the Key West Cemetery. Structuring the book are three poems by the Cuban poet, Aicercul, with titles of the three stages of grief: Flowers, Exile, and Repose. Maureen Tracy Venti, the publisher, assembled and ordered the material. Working with beautiful images and touching poetry, she created this sensitive, perceptive, and moving experience.
Michael A. Philip photographs are at the heart of the book. He took them from 2006-2008 and had a popular exhibition of the work at The Studios of Key West. That exhibit was structured first by the freshness and then two later stages showing the gradual decaying of the flowers. The effects of time gave coherence to the three large groupings of images. Also in three parts, the present collection follows the progress of three poems by Aicercul (in Spanish but translated by the author, Philip, and Venti). The focus is the effects of time, not on the flowers, but on the mourner: flowers that were exchanged with the loved one in life and now in death; the flowers of mourning caused by the separation, the exile of the mourner from the mourned. And the flowers of acceptance, those that await the loved one s body with the cold marble face in the cemetery of exile. The flowers dramatize the words of the poem. The photographs and the poetry become actors in a play that many of us act out several times in our lives. The beginning lines of Flores, the first poem, are: So many flowers you gave me . . . Fragrances that still perfume my thoughts. Then there are several images of incredibly beautiful flowers, primarily lilies and roses, in strong colors of blue, yellow, red, and white bunches of flowers . . . Fade in sadness On your cold marble face. And the images shift to flowers with spots or other signs of decay. The last image of that first section shows a fallen vase with flowers in disarray. The images in the second section, Exile, are in black and white. The first is a winged angel-child; her eyes are closed; her face, solemn. The last image of the third section, Repose, is of a rectangular tomb, empty except for on bunch of flowers at the front. The tomb and flowers are awaiting your beautiful body. The third major creator of this thoughtful exploration of grief is the publisher, Maureen Tracy Venti. Besides doing the regular work of a publisher deciding on paper, colors and standards of printing, and then seeing the book through the press, Venti also acted as the editor. She chose the pictures, their order, and the placement of the lines of the poetry in the unfolding drama of images and words.
After experiencing the entire book, it is useful to return to the first picture, which is a prelude to the action. The image has a dark background. On the ground next to a tomb are dead leaves and faded flowers. Then one notices a circular series of objects tinted with blue light: two fallen vases, debris, and a weathered plastic cup. In the lower right is a group of brightly colored red and yellow flowers. In the top left is a ceramic box decorated with two crosses: one on the front of the box; the other rising on the top. At the foot of this cross are small ceramic flowers, an open bible, and a dove. This picture introduces us to the themes of the images and poems: life overcome by death, beauty subject to decay, life like beauty temporary and uncertain. The images on the ceramic box suggest that religion is the only solace in this world of transience and decay. But the Catholic culture that affirms these sad truths also promises a blessed ending of peace, hope, and love. --Joel Blair, Solares Hill
Michael A. Philip thoroughly explored the cemetery, finding themes within it. It made a story emerge that wasn't just about the individuals, but the whole place, and the whole group of the dead. I also had this thought that it blurred the distinction between the dead and the memory of the dead. That the memory, or the way people remember someone, really does take on an embodiment of that person. The flowers remind me of Dutch still lifes... Philip's architecture eye really showed. The crypts, the rows of tombs, were rendered like houses, like neighborhoods. --Margit Bisztray
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherStella Luca Press
- Publication date2011
- ISBN 10 0983181101
- ISBN 13 9780983181101
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages64
- EditorMaureen Tracy Venti
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Flores Para Los Muertos, Flowers for the Dead
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Stella Luca Press, Key West, Florida
(2011)
ISBN 10: 0983181101
ISBN 13: 9780983181101
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. Philip, Michael A. (illustrator). First Edition. Poetry by Aicercul. Oblong. Blind stamp on title page from publisher, signiture under title. Seller Inventory # 012980
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