Bouquet in a Stone Urn, Lafayette Cemetery No 1, New Orleans
An assorted bouquet with Black-Eyed Susan and Laurel branches in a found still life photograph from Lafayette Cemetery No 1 in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Black-Eyed Susan is an American wildflower, symbolic of justice, while the laurel branches emerge from behind like a frieze. The laurel has a has a complex symbology from a token of martial victory to the resurrection of Jesus. It is a representation of eternal youth from the story of Apollo’s unrequited love of Daphne and her transformation into the evergreen Laurel tree. The bouquet’s artificial plants contrast with the stalk of seeding live grass on the right of the picture. Shadows frame and mollify the strict rectangular composition of the photo, anchored by the stone urn.
