Being Still: Standing Stones in Wales

San Francisco photographer Marcia Lieberman hiked through South Wales photographing a collection of ancient stones the size of small giants. Older than Stonehenge, these stones were placed in their current locations more than 4000 years ago, and since then, have not been moved. Lieberman writes, ?The stones were massive?some of them fifteen feet above the ground (another 5 feet below)?Respected and protected by the community, the maenhir (the Welsh name for such singular stones) stood and waited. I found the isolation and singularity of the maenhir compelling and idiomatic. In fact, it is not known why they exist, or how they got there. What fascinated me most, were the stories associated with each stone, and the mysteries and dark sensibilities that local farmers told.? Lieberman sat with a stone for hours, and captured the silent presence and particular character of each one. Stationed on the land, whispered about, and protected by the farming population, these national treasures represent lost souls and wandering ghosts. AUTHOR: Marcia Lieberman is an accomplished fine art and commercial photographer, whose projects include such subjects as Tehauna women, opera divas, and Zen masters. Her last book, When Divas Confess, presented the private domain and expression of great singers. During her 30 years of teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, and California College of Art, Lieberman has lectured on the role of time and space as it relates to objects, dwellings, representation of time passing, and the interview as a visual entity. For Being Still, Lieberman travelled the countryside with Terry John, a Welsh historian and professor who has known and visited the stones for over 30 years, and guided Lieberman to stones not visited before. Lieberman resides in San Francisco and passes much of her time at the San Francisco Zen Center where being still is a daily practice. ILLUSTRATIONS: Photographs throughout *