November, 2006

Iona Abby Church, Iona,Argyll

TOUCHSTONES

Iona is an island of tranquility and beauty. It sits a mile off the west coast of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. It has a long history of scared significance. Several of Scotland's early kings (including Macbeth of Shakespeare fame) are buried in the cemetery adjacent to the Abbey. In 563 Saint Columba began a small monastery on the island. There is reason to believe that the island held sacred significance before Columba's landing but in the fifteen hundred years since it has grown in significance. The monastery established by St. Columba was undoubtedly wood and wattle and later replaced by stone buildings. According to some reports the monastery was abandoned in 849 because of repeated attacks and looting by Vikings. During the middle ages a nunnery and later a monastery were re-founded on the island. Both were associated with the Benedictine order and survived as thriving communities until the Reformation of 1560. At that time they were abandoned to wreck and ruin.

The dukes of Argyll owned the island of Iona. In 1899 the Duke of Argyll transferred ownership of the building ruins to the Iona Cathedral trust, which was linked to the Church of Scotland. However no funds were provided with the deed transfer and it wasn't until Rev. George MacLeod established the Iona community in 1938 that efforts to restore the buildings began in earnest. Rev. MacLeod's idea was unite craftsmen and ministers-in-training in the task of restoring the buildings. Stone masons, carpenters, and other skilled craftsmen brought their skills to the island and worked for thirty years to bring the abbey, chapel, and cloisters back to life.

I first visited Iona in 2003. It was a brief visit. I stayed in Fionnphort, just across the sound from Iona. It was a short ferry ride across the mile wide channel. The first time I was on the island it was a wet, foggy, rainy day. The cover image for TOUCHSTONES came from the small chapel in the graveyard near the abbey. I returned the next day to explore the abbey itself. Again it was foggy and rainy - beautiful light for making photographs but a long wet walk with camera gear from the ferry.

I spent the first several hours that day just walking around the cloisters trying to figure out what I wanted to photograph. I made many images during those hours. When I am in a location where I feel something special but can't figure out exactly what, I simply begin to work. I look for overall images that may begin to explain the space, for middle distance images that begin to put it in context and detail images that define the uniqueness of the space. I made one image that I was sure would make the book. Standing with my back against the outside corner of the cloisters, I was able to set up the 5x12 with wide-angle lens and get two sides of the cloisters as they met at an internal corner. It is a lovely centered image, two lines of columns joining at a point in the center of the frame. The soft light allowed the shadows to be open and kept the highlights from overwhelming brightness. BUT what tickled me was the small scooter leaning up against the cloisters wall. I couldn't help but wonder what medieval monks would think not only of the scooter but also of the child that left it there. The laughter and joy the scooter would provide just didn't seem to fit with beautiful austerity of this place. Fortunately this is a 20th century abbey, which welcomes everyone.

The image from that day's work that did make TOUCHSTONES is the image of the face carved into stone. In the cloisters there are faces carved into stone on all four corners but this face appealed to me more than any of the others. Perhaps it was because of the light caressing it. Perhaps it is the expression of vaguely optimistic hope. Perhaps it was the blowing hair. I spent quite a while photographing this face. In sequencing TOUCHSTONES this face offered a feeling of hope, the inevitability of spring. The middle distance vantage point offered a setting; it placed it with context as part of a series of columns. It revives the feelings I was experiencing that day on Iona.

Inside the sanctuary of the Abbey there are memorial stain glass windows celebrating some of the people who donated money and help to fund the restoration of the Abbey buildings. In an alcove on the western side lies the marble effigies of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll who gave the island of Iona to the people of Scotland and the buildings of the abbey to the Iona Cathedral Trust. I examined the beautiful carvings with awe and appreciation. They are excellent examples of funerary art. The obvious image to make in this situation is the overall image with the window that illuminates the two sculptures. What I found interesting was the line of light running along the edge of each statue and decided to make the image of just the statues emphasizing that edge of light. George Campbell, Eightieth Duke of Argyll is represented in the foreground and his wife is alongside. Notice that his crown is at his feet but hers is on her head. Does that mean his body is not physically in the crypt and hers is or does it have something to do with linage and bloodlines? No one has given me a good answer for that, yet.