Vilnius Rasų kapinės. The Four Seasons

“Vilnius Rasų kapinės. Four Seasons”is a publication of the Warsaw publishing house ” Ex libris”.  The photographs found in the book, taken by Marek Gerstmann, Jerzy Malinowski and Krzysztof Kupczyk, show known the Vilnius necropolis from the perspective of the changing seasons.

Although the most important part of the book are photographs, the information layer is also worthy of attention. Mieczyslaw Jackiewicz took care of this section, showing in a few pages the history of the cemetery. Besides, starting from the front page every now and then shows up quotes from the memories of Tadeusz Konwicki, Polish writer and director born in Naujoji Vilnia.

The authors of photographs done a lot of work to show in their photos Rossa cemetery in all its glory. So we see places that anyone, who even once visited the cemetery has certainly seen, such as Jozef Pilsudski mother’s tombstone, the bust of Joachim Lelewel and the graves of Polish soldiers who died in the years from 1919 to 1920.

At the cemetery you can also see many other works of tombstone art, often  sadly neglected and damaged, but still making the impression on visitors.

Particularly interesting are the photos taken during autumn and winter, highlighting the amazing atmosphere. The greatest value of the album, released in A4 size and thick-rimmed, are the photographs.

Most of them are of very high level. You cannot hide, however, that they were taken by three different photographers, because some of them differ qualitatively from the others. Some of them could use the delicate processing and contrast enhancement. However,  this does not affect the evaluation of this publication, which is interesting and worth recommending to all for whom Vilnius Ross is an exceptional place.

The book was made available for review thanks to courtesy of the bookstore “Elephas”.