I find myself there, digging away, like a thief in the night, studying the names and the dates and families. Who lived long, who perished at sea, what pauper drowned and was buried with a beloved son? Whose child was snatched away 2 years 3 months and 4 days from her birth? It’s all there for the graverobbers to steal, to ponder, to breathe life back into those once loved and loathed and lost.
These folks are passing their eternity in the cemetery of the Russell Christ Church in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand… My husband and I used to visit several times a year, though the last while we’ve been spending more time overseas. It was rather romantic to get back…
Titirangi Storyteller 
I love this photo — it’s spooky and beautiful all at the same time.
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Thank you, Miss Pink… exactly what I was going for… I love photographing cemeteries – the results are almost completely dependent on what you bring to them…
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Snooping in grave yards is very interesting. I used to do it in New Orleans all the time.
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Argh! There’d be some ghosts romping around those parts, matey!
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Stories to tell. Have you thought up your own epitaph? Intriguing to consider. My husband’s favorite, “It must have been something he ate.”—no we didn’t see that one on a gravestone!
I kind of like, “She went out in a blaze of glory!” but then I’d have to try the hang gliding over an active volcano…Will you take my picture there? š
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Hmmm… I had not, maybe because I have not decided whether I want to be buried or cremated and if cremated, if I want my ashes strewn into the ocean or saved in an urn and where that urn should be kept – on one of my descendants’ mantelpiece or in some urnery to be looked after for whatever chunk of eternity it is economically viable for the urnerers to maintain it (and just what might become of it then???)
And the downside of cemetery interment is that you get very little choice in what your tombstone will say. They do not allow for creativity or individuality – most will only allow a standard selection of epitaphs and iconry to be used so………… sigh – such a dilemma – how do I make my mark on the little chunk of eternity following my passing???
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Your photos will live on and and make your mark. The gravestones around here are lasered with all kinds of pictures including those of the dearly departed. Their hobbies and work are immortalized with a laser outline of a race car or tractor or a hunting scene with cattails, their favorite hunting dog and a duck that just flew up. My mom put “Parents of” on the back of their stone and listed each of our first names; sweet. For sure order your tombstone now and it will say about anything you wish š
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Interesting how life intersects with itself… the other day a friend of mine who own a gravestone shop came to me with a business proposition… he needs someone to create the ceramic tiles with photos on them for his gravestones. It is essentially a photo or photo montage along with a smart-phone gravatar with is put together in Photoshop and then fired – to last an eternity… I am thinking about it. Just wondering if I can manage working with images of the recently deceased all the time. It is not a full time business, but reasonably lucrative, and one I can hire a student or new-mom to do the actual sticking of the images onto the tiles… So my information on cemeteries is a bit outdated…
I might have to be buried just so my tombstone could be a collage of my favourite words and pictures…
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Appeals to my love of the mystery inherent in all cemeteries.
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I think that it is an interesting business proposition, and if anyone could do justice to the images, it would be you. But as for looking at images of the deceased, that would definitely be hard, and I don’t know if I could do something like that without it getting to me after a while.
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