“The earth doesn’t care where death occurs. ...It’s the artist, by coming in and writing about it or painting it or taking a photograph of it, that makes the earth powerful and creates death’s memory. Because the land will not remember by itself, but the artist will.”

–Sally Mann

What happens when we die? Our bodies go into the ground, and the only tangible remnant of our death is the tombstone that marks our burial. It is only by memory that we remain alive in the hearts of the people we knew and loved. Our spirits then linger on, watching over them, hoping to keep that memory strong. As time goes on, those memories of us slowly dissipate until they, too, are gone. It is then and only then, that we are truly dead.