the Cemetery image thread....

Very well seen, IVN. I find your second particularly poignant with the out of focus background that still allows us to see the more "modern" couple on their headstone, as well as the angle of the foreground's headstone. I may be wrong, but I don't think here in the USA we have too many examples of grave markers with photographs. They create, for me, a completely different feeling.
 
Very well seen, IVN. I find your second particularly poignant with the out of focus background that still allows us to see the more "modern" couple on their headstone, as well as the angle of the foreground's headstone.
Thank you very much!

I may be wrong, but I don't think here in the USA we have too many examples of grave markers with photographs. They create, for me, a completely different feeling.
In Serbia we have very few headstones without photographs. Only the very old ones, which were built before photography was available, have no images. But even many of those have fairly accurate representations of the person's likeness engraved into marble. Nowadays many people prefer the engraving to the photo, there is a trend here. Maybe because it is more permanent and long lasting?

To be honest, I like seeing a picture, because it enables me to better relate to the people, who have died long before I was born. The pictures transform the cemetery into a kind of time machine. :)

The last image IVN is a very sad picture indeed but a great image none the less .

You are right. Serbia being a country with a very low standard of living, many people lack the funds to maintain the graves of their ancestors.
 
Thank you very much!


In Serbia we have very few headstones without photographs. Only the very old ones, which were built before photography was available, have no images. But even many of those have fairly accurate representations of the person's likeness engraved into marble. Nowadays many people prefer the engraving to the photo, there is a trend here. Maybe because it is more permanent and long lasting?

To be honest, I like seeing a picture, because it enables me to better relate to the people, who have died long before I was born. The pictures transform the cemetery into a kind of time machine. :)



You are right. Serbia being a country with a very low standard of living, many people lack the funds to maintain the graves of their ancestors.

Thank you for sharing these, IVN. I've never seen engraved images on tombstones, and I've never seen so many portraits together. I mean no disrespect, but I don't know how else to say this - it's a very striking effect, unlike anything I've ever seen before. Reverent and moving, but for me, also mind bending! It does bring the departed very much to mind as real individuals, not simply "the departed."

I agree with what others have said about specific photos. I also find the tree that was carefully paved around but died and cut down to be touching. Having been in the nursery business, I've had conversations with people about plants they've planted in graveyards and I know the significance that can be attached to them, and of course they don't always survive.

Your comment about the impermanence of the photographic additions is spot on, as your photo of the fallen headstone with the damaged photo shows. I hope I can lay hands on and scan one of my photos from the days of film - it's around here somewhere - that shows even worse damage to the ceramic? bearing the photo. Sometimes old technology wins out.
 
Very well seen, IVN. I find your second particularly poignant with the out of focus background that still allows us to see the more "modern" couple on their headstone, as well as the angle of the foreground's headstone. I may be wrong, but I don't think here in the USA we have too many examples of grave markers with photographs. They create, for me, a completely different feeling.

I have seen photo headstones in So Ill and in the Jefferson City Mo area (roughly between St. Louis Mo and Kansas City MO)So they may be a Midwestern thing in the US. (Of course, I've done most of my cemetery wandering in So ILL) But I don't think I have ever stood in front of a marker with a photograph and been able to see another from that point, so I'd say they are neither unheard of nor common in my area.
 
San Ysidro Cemetery, Corrales NM.

Shot with my Sony A7, Zeiss 35mm f/2.8, iso200, 1/500 sec.


1207-8.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
Back
Top