Key West Cemetery, 2014

 The Key West Cemetery is a fascinating location. Over time I've become a bit of a connoisseur of cemeteries, each of which has its own look and feel. 

First, let's get the obligatory photo out of the way. Key West is home to what may well be one of the most photographed monuments in the world.  It doesn't lend itself to artistic interpretation, so here it is, shot in what you might call an evidentiary style:  been there, done that.  (Although I didn't see t-shirts documenting this particular attraction anywhere on Duval Street.)

And, in the interests of being thorough, three feet higher on the same wall:

Key West has some raised crypts, which gives it some of the feel of the cemeteries in New Orleans, but there are far more standard ground-level graves than there were in New Orleans.  It is very obviously a frequently visited location (although in the first of my three visits I didn't see a soul, so to speak.)  

Something that sets the Key West Cemetery apart is the astonishing range of little statuettes and figurines that have been added to the graves.  I'll do a couple more posts showcasing this, there were just too many examples to reasonably put into a single post.

- Sid

New Orleans, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

I think that Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans was the first time that I took graveyard photos.  Colin and I were down there on vacation, and when we heard about the cemeteries, we instantly knew that we had to go to one of the locations and take some pictures.

Cemetery No. 1 isn't safe - people have been shot there, tourists have been robbed, and although it would be a great place to take pictures at night, probably not a good idea.  There were a couple of armed guards wandering around in between the graves when we were there, and several people had warned us to be a little careful.

Regardless, it was just an amazing location.  New Orleans has a well deserved reputation - that unique combination of Southern lifestyle, Creole influence, voodoo, the decadence of the French Quarter - and I found that Cemetery No. 1 had a sort of surreal vibe. I think that the pictures I took ended up having some of that feel, a kind of Twilight Zone strangeness.

 

 

 - Sid

Luss Parish Church Cemetery, Luss

The headstones and memorials at the Luss Parish Church were so overgrown and coloured by lichen that they might well have changed the name of the town to Moss.  

- Sid

Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh

How sad that we have chosen such a fragile thing as stone for our memorials.

By the way, this theme will probably show up in my posts here again - I think that it's a combination of working with type for many years added to my ongoing photographic interest in textures and shapes.

- Sid

Lichened Onto

This is a site that I literally drove past at least a hundred times. I only really noticed it after probably fifty. It took me likely another year before I finally actually visited. It sits by itself beside the road on the west side between Markham and Stouffville, Ontario.

Many of the headstones are lying down, some cemented into a grouping of which this was one, and although the grounds are tended the stones themselves often support new life.
 

First Markham Baptist Cemetery, 9th Line, Markham, ON

Every place you go there are the dead if you but take the time to see where their shadows lie.
                                                                                                                                                                                    Colin