AMERICAN ICON 1: Log Cabin

While traveling through rural Pennsylvania on the way to visit the Flight 93 Memorial, I drove past a rural cemetery so intriguing that I had to stop, turn around, and explore the stories told by all the old gravestones. The older grave markers had been quarried of native stone from the area, and had held up well during two centuries of rain, frost, snow, and sun. Families were buried together, and the hardships of growing up in an earlier time were written in inscriptions illustrating the short lives of many children.

In the middle of the cemetery stood a two-story log cabin that had been erected by the town’s founder. It was well maintained, and I turned to it after photographing the gravestones. I liked the contrast of the light-colored chinking with the dark logs and thought it would make a nice photograph in combination with the windows. Then it struck me—the logs, chinking, and windows made a wonderful symbolic representation of the American flag. I knew at the moment that I could take a truly special photograph of this scene.

LIMITED EDITION: This photographic print is part of a limited edition produced by photographer Lee Rentz. The edition consists of 250 prints, which includes all sizes and methods of printing.