State of Granite by Joshua Spees

Issue 81

In 1935 the anthropologist and linguist Edward Sapir bought a circa 1790 farmhouse and property in rural New Hampshire. He bought the home to work on his writing and language studies away from Yale University where he was a professor. Edward passed only four short years later, but his wife Jean kept and maintained the home and property for the family. Seventy four years later I married Edward's granddaughter and was introduced to this place, their summer home, and a way of life where time seemed to stand still. This place of stone walls, glacial lakes, and never ending forests was a seemingly foreign place to me. These images represent a view of a place where I began as an outsider, but have since begun to raise my own family in traditions that are eerily close to my own. Photography holds a very important place in the Sapir family and it is the language which brought us all together in this state of granite.

Joshua Spees lives and works in Shenandoah Valley, VA.
To view more of Joshua's work, please visit his website.