Waldo Found
A few weeks ago while I was out photographing in the wheat field country called The Palouse in Washington I wrote a post that challenged readers to find a gravestone in a cemetery in Oakesale, WA with the gravemarker "Waldo"
Here's the post: Here's the Deal
I wrote then that anyone that finds the headstone gets a print from the Oakesdale series from me as the prize.
Well, drumroll please, we have a winner!
It is Susan Nalband from 555 Gallery.
I know what you're thinking, "Isn't this the gallery Neal shows his work with?"
Yes, it is but I swear this is not a fixed contest. Out of the blue Susan sent me an email this morning:
How about that?
Of course, she didn't actually go out there and walk around the cemetery to prove she found it. But she did something better, she found the story behind the marker.
WALDO ALVIN NOLTING died when he was 28 years old and he was single. I wonder what that story is? Farm accident, disease, ill health from serving in WW I?
Thank you, Susan. Please get in touch soon to claim your print, any of your choice from the Oakesdale Series.
Congratulations!
And thank you Mr. Nolting. It is sad you died so young. If there is anything at all after we die, you should know that you lie in a most beautiful spot, on the side of a hill, surrounded by wheat fields and with a tree over you for shade from the summer's heat.
Related series
Oakesdale, Washington 1997
Made in 1997 while in Eastern Washington in the earlier years of shooting the Wheat country called "The Palouse" in the 8 x 10 inch format. This series was made hand held with a Super Wide Hasselblad camera as a result of believing that I should loosen up the structure of the series work I had been making until then. My interest had been mostly in urban places( Nantucket, Yountville, etc.) comparing newer areas to those that had been made more individualized by owners over a longer period of time. The Oakesdale Cemetery sits on a hill surrounded by the wheat fields I had been photograping and is a far more emotional response to a place. My good friend Robert Gooblar was very sick and would die the following year. He was very much on my mind as I walked around this utopia of a cemetery on a hill on a hot mid afternoon day in July.
The Oakesdale series has been shown and published many times now but the original sixteen prints were made conventionally in a darkroom, are selenium toned and are about 12 inches square.
