TOUCHSTONES

January, 2005

The island of Iona has been a sacred site in Scotland since St. Columba brought Christianity from Ireland to the Picts. Most likely it was a sacred site long before he arrived. There is majesty about the island that is hard to describe. It takes at least two ferries to get there and yet once you arrive it is quite small. It has been the burial place of Scotland’s kings for centuries but accounts vary as to the specific names and number. As a student of history and religion, it is my kind of place.

The Abbey complex at Iona has been rebuilt upon the walls and foundations of the original Abbey. St. Columba’s Chapel is a small stone building in the graveyard. It is undoubtedly one of the earliest buildings in the complex because of its thick walls and small windows.

It has two different windows, one on each side and a door at one end. There is a small alter at the other end with a gold cross above it. It is very austere with a few kneeling prayer rails and a few tombstones secured to the wall. Simple and quiet, it is overlooked by most visitors. I spent about four hours working and the longest any other visitor stayed inside was two or three minutes. Its uncomplicated appearance deceived most. For me it was a place of profound silence.

The quiet of this small building allowed me to sit, meditate and absorb the feeling of the place. I photographed windows, the altar and the standing tombstones. The window on the southern side is tall and narrow with sill and shelf below the window itself. The window itself is narrow, maybe twelve inches across, and set into the exterior of the wall. The wall flares out to a much larger opening in the room allowing for a great deal of light to enter the room. This design kept the opening to a minimum yet allowing in the maximum amount of light.

It is a beautiful window. My first images were of the entire window, trying to capture the beauty of light flowing through this narrow opening and illuminating the walls inside. The image itself was a technical and aesthetic problem but I liked the image I was seeing on the ground glass. As I worked on the photograph I noticed the stones on the windowsill.

During the day I had overheard stories of pilgrims leaving a stone brought from home on Iona, to insure their return to the island. It began to dawn on me that these stones on the windowsill must be pilgrim stones. I made two negatives of the stones. One image included the stones on both shelves. The other was a detail image of just the stones on the top shelf of the sill.

Occasionally images haunt my dreams. This was one of those images. It stayed with me so much that I returned to Iona the next day seeking more images. I felt like I finally began to understand the quietude of Iona.

During the editing process I wrestled with the “problem” of having two images that were very similar and were from the same place in the book. I couldn’t let go of either image. At some point it was suggested I use one as the cover image and the other as an inside image. From that grew the idea that the detail image should be the cover and opening image and the full window would be the closing image. The circle was complete.