THE MARINE CEMETERY

LUCAS GARCETE

// Lucas is a Paraguayan poet and photographer with Spanish nationality based in Madrid. His photographic work is an alternative poetic discourse that revolves around introspection through themes of mortality, the passage of time, and the relationship between nature and the self. He establishes a bridge between literature based on the text and the image as visual poetry.

“Reading and looking at poetry makes us rethink our attitude as readers, it makes us read life more slowly,” he says. “I don’t have a worldview or a clear path in the world of photography. My work is the result of my intimacy and my imagination. They are fossils of light and time, each photograph is the art of memory.”

Lucas has published a poem collection entitled “El Boulevard” (2017). He has collaborated in Hispanic literary journals such as Fábula, Letralia, La Poesía Alcanza, etc. He was a finalist in the 8th Jovellanos International Poetry Prize, The Best Poem in the World (Nobel Editions, 2020). His work appears in various anthologies of poetry and has been translated into Russian by the poet Dmitry Kuzmín.

“Heaven is empty, the angels are here. ”

Lucas Garcete

What draws you to the arts?

“Photography, poetry, music, etc, all form part of a single and universal art, the art of memory… With art we relate our path to death. It heals us, makes life easier for us.”

What do you like about your graveyard photo series?

“As in Valéry’s poem, in these images there is a meditation on death and the illusion of the immortality of the soul that accompanies the temptation to die. The static nature of the cemetery along with its statues and mausoleums, contrast with the tireless murmur of the waves forming the confused sway of time. The boast of heraldry, power, and all that beauty and wealth bestowed upon us, await their inevitable hour, for the paths of glory also lead us to the grave.”

This series owes its name to the reading of a poem by the French poet Paul Valéry Le Cimetière marin (usually translated as The Graveyard by the Sea in English). It was published in 1922 in the collection Charmes; ou poèmes. The poem is set in the graveyard at Sète, also now the poet´s burial ground, and is a meditation on death. You may want to read an English translation of the entire poem here.

Lucas´ black and white photographs are of the Gothic Cemetery of Comillas (Cantabria), located by the sea.

We thought publishing this series on the 1st of November quite appropriate, a day when many people visit the graves of their dead to remember and honour them.

Click on the photos to see the full image with their title.