Jump to content

Cemeteries and Headstones


davidspahr

Recommended Posts

I have found that older tombstones often have more character. Walking through a small graveyard about 40 yrs ago with my daughter, but without camera, I found a tombstone from early %1800s that read like a novel. I don’t remember the names, so I am just using made up names: Here lies the body of Mary Smith, beloved wife of John Smith, murdered by the incompetent physician Dr. Frederick Jones.

I have been back to that cemetery several times with my camera but never found it again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have found that older tombstones often have more character.

I believe enough in photographers that a good one can photograph a new one and figure out a way to give it whatever character it may *seem to* inherently lack. (It’s less likely that it lacks character and more likely that its individual character hasn’t been accessed or discovered by the one encountering it or that the character being looked for is what’s expected instead of something new or surprising.) Photographing a tombstone with cute writing on it would be one thing. Making a photo with character is quite another.

"You talkin' to me?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I look for the cemeteries that have the oldest headstones in them. 'findagrave.com' is a treasure trove.

I want to, in effect, say " We haven't forgotten you, even though you have been gone for so long".

That's why I especially try to find headstones and markers for veterans from times long past.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

)"Photographing a tombstone with cute writing on it would be one thing. Making a photo with character is quite another." Sam

 

Indeed.

 

Show us...., walk the walk, not the talk.

Nothing wrong with either approach. I often take pictures of amusing signs, etc just because they are. Same with shop windows. During Chinese virus, a local gum store had a sign posted on door of entrance, “if you enter store wearing a mask, there will be consequences.” As G. B. Shaw noted, success in photography is about the same odds as salmon successfully going upstream and mating..

Sorry, on iPad, not computer, so can’t show pictures.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've shot numerous old cemeteries and continue to find them fascinating.

 

Not too awful far from home a friend of mine and I wanted to shoot an old barn. We drove up to the nearest house to seek permission and in speaking to the guy, he pointed acroxs the road to an old and very decrepit cemetery, saying there were some old graves in there- graves from revolutionary & civil war soldiers among others. It's in a very sad state but here are 2 shots I made with the Hasselblad. In the shot of the tombstone of the child who died aged 1 year (2nd photo), you can see the farmhouse where we talked to the farmer in the background.

 

kkLs1LkQ.thumb.jpeg.37e41b501495e0f939ae469b87c647b3.jpeg

 

cau9Cc8Q.thumb.jpeg.ba98f1035b41eece3d5741d1df20aa22.jpeg

 

these would have been with the 80mm Planar lens... honestly do not recall what film I used for these, could have been an Ilford product tho don't hold me to that.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's another one - from the hilltop cemetery in Grafton, Vermont; this was another accidental double exposure made using my 1930s Voigtlander Bessa, a folding 6x9 MF camera. It demands full attention, and often, I still "create" accidental dbl exposures with it. Usually, tho, I end up liking them - as with this one. Again, unsure what film this was shot on... Kodak Portra, maybe? The big white blob at teh top of the shot is a mound of snow on a "pillar" style headstone

 

p3807134862-5.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...