Cemetary pictures?

[Nige]

I'll add a pic which you can comment on

[cophotonut]

There was a cemetary in London that wanted to charge fo me to bring a camera to it. It was 10 pounds I think. I forget the name as we happened upon it, but that is insane.

[ann]

When ever visiting a new location I always try to spend time at the local cemetary. The older the better. Modern times (expense ?) have seem to done away with beautiful art forms that were very common place years ago.
My sense is the beauty and peacefulness is very powerful. I do agree it is important to be very respectful of the grounds and the manner in which the work is produced.
I always encourage my students to work in these locations as it gives one time, quiet, and a good place to practice technique without strangers asking questions about these "Old" cameras (4 X 5).
As a added adventure, reading headstone can be very educational, humurous, and thought provoking.
Perhaps like all things, intend is the measure of results.

[Robert Kennedy]

I actually found an old cemetary last weekend that I plan to shoot. As far as I can tell it is the old cemetary for the town of Silverbell, AZ which was abandoned and buried under the tailings of the Silverbell Mine. Driving along a dirt road into the northern section of Ironwood National Monument, I came across this little cemetary on the side of the road. It is set back a ways and sort of ambles along a little ridge. There are probably 20-40 graves there of varying ages. Some at least 100+ years old. None have legible labels. Very much a "boothill" kind of place.

Oh, and for strange gravestones....

When I lived in the Seattle area, there was an old miners cemetary in the Coal Creek area near Renton. Now apparently there had been a family in the area named Monster. Yes, Monster. There is a Monster Road in Renton. Anyway, in this cemetary was a tombstone with the name - "Baby Monster".

[Jim Chinn]

Somewhat off the topic but in the midwest (as well as other semi rural locations)
you will find the roadside memorials for victims of car accidents. Usually they are for young adults and children made of homemade crosses embellished with flowers and balloons, pictures of the deceased and cards and letters from friends. one especialy moving one had a cross with a small garden type picket fence around it and the ground covered by various stuffed animals and toys.

For the city and state they are a nuisance becuase they are on highway and street right of ways, but for friends and family they serve as poignant reminders of a loved ones life cut short.

I have been photographing these memorials in and around Omaha in various conditions from new and well kept to decaying and nearly vanished. I don't yet fully understand why I am attracted to photograph them but I do feel a need to document these impermanent memorials.



I think one reason that interested me is the varying conditions of thse spots. When I see a memorial that had been kept up with new flowers or a new picture and then a few months later is overgrown with weeds and slowly disappearing, I wonder if the family has gotten beyond the tradgedy, or maybe the grief has become overwhelming? Maybe they just simply moved away. I hope mystery is also somehow conveyed in the final image.

[Aggie]

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[Robert Kennedy]

Jim - I know what you mean. I myself have wanted to do a project where I take a section of highway and shoot every single one of those memorials. Sort of a snapshot of that area.

Living in the Southwest, those memorials are VERY common. I have seen them in other states, and they are not just a hispanic or catholic phenomenon, but they seem to have origonated as such. In fact there are a couple of spanish words for them, although I can not remember them right now.

In Tucson, we have one that is very old. In the late 19th century (IIRC), a woman had an affair with local man whom she met at the railroad tracks. The enraged husband killed him and placed him on the tracks so his body was scattered along them for miles.

Locals at some point turned an old adobe wall with a hearth in it into a shrine for the man and his lover, whom legend says can still be seen wandering the tracks looking for him. To this day people leave prayers in small niches cut into the adobe wall and light candles there.

[ann]

It came to mind after my previous post in this thread that the cemetary I was referring to has a Victorian Sunday Picinic in the Park every year. Folks wear clothes of that period, bring picinic basket and blankets and sit on the common ground at the premise. There is a Teddy Bear Tea Pary for children, including a professional story teller, music, folk dancing, and even a photo contest for photos taken at that location. It is a wonderful afternoon and people have a wonderful time. There is such a thing as a celebration for live but perhaps that is my Irish background.

[Les McLean]

In Edinburgh Scotland, 60 miles from where I live there is a cemetary that is about 150 years old with some quite beautiful headstones embedded into walls. When wet during the frequent rainstorms in this part of the world, they are positively screaming to be photographed. I have often gone there to make photographs in the rain but have done so only once because I feel as though I am intruding in a place of memories and privacy and feel guilty. I am not a particularly religous person so it is not on those grounds that I don't make photographs but I do feel that when selecting locations photographers should show care and respect. In reading through this thread it seems to me that many of you make good photographs in cemetaries. Given my block, how would you deal with the moral grounds of my dilema.

[clogz]

When visiting a War Cemetary in Nijmegen, Holland some years ago I got talking with some WWII veterans and I asked what they thought of my intention to take pictures there. They had no objections whatsoever.