March 11, 2009

Institutional and Individual Memories


It was my first visit to Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since reading William Martin's Harvard Yard. The inscription on the wall of Memorial Church stopped me in my tracks.

In Grateful Memory of
The Harvard Men who Died
In the World War
We Have Built this Church


University Church, 2009

My earliest published images, taken as a teenager, were shot in and around Harvard Yard. So while the setting was familiar, Martin's book - which chronicles a fictional family through Harvard's history - brought to life (and death) the impact of wars on the university and its students.



Just inside the church doors, these hangers waited patiently for visitor's coats.

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