Death

This is a found object, a close up view of the worn-away spine of the book of Scott Joplin piano rags that got me into music, and ragtime particularly, in high school. It strikes me now as a memorial but also a tragic commentary both on the truncated nature of Joplin's life and career, as well as the sad reality that all of human work will eventually be destroyed by the forces of nature. Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" and Claude McKay's "America" come to mind.