Ruhuna Fatiha -Mercer County ~1991

"Ruhuna Fatiha" is an invitation to recite a specific prayer for the deceased (in Turkish).There rests a Turkish lady named Cemaliye!

What means the rest? We were close in age. Cemaliye died young. Was she Turkish?

She certainly was Turkish.

The crescent and star is Turkish flag and the language is Turkish. "Hasan Ali" was most likely her father as it had been in use for centuries in place of "surname". The words above her picture are misprinted and they mean something like "rest in heaven"...

This is double exposed, each exposure at -1/2 fstop.

Did you do that to increase shadow detail? Why is it better than exposing for the shadows only? Must have something to do with developing and darkroom processes, I think.

I am not sure of your question about shadow etc. Are you asking about the double exposure each minus 1 fstop? All done on tripod. The double exposure was: A closeup with micro lens of only her face in that picture on the stone -so the face filled the frame. Then a second exposure (double exposure) of the entire stone...so that her face appears in the stone.. ..eyes are just either side of her photo hairline at the top and mouth and chin are below the light gray area. This is a photo of a series of 4 fotos which begin with the stone and her face in the stone and changing the fstops so face progressively in the fades away till just the stone... hard to explain but you know the technique. I made 4 (i think this one was second of the series) and then cut a single mat for them and put into one frame like a large collage so they appear as a series with the face fading away. It was an idea, I called , "weaning from this earth" that I had from the play Thorton Wilder's "our town". I had just finished a commision so shoot all the rehersal scenes of the play. Now you are really confused I suppose. I sold that one and it was the only one I ever made...I guess you'd have to read the play and the scene at the grave and their talk about slowly fading away from this earth. Sorry, can't explain. read the play. :-)

I haven't seen her superimposed face (beautiful, by the way) first time around!!!

I am happy that I did fail as reading your note and afterwards reading about the play were both illuminating.

Seeing the real picture was a bonus!

Thanks a lot.

Did not see first time around....sometimes the mind sees what it expects to see not what it really sees. :-)

Perhaps Ruhuna is related to the Hebrew word Rahamim (have mercy)