Earthly Remains - a photo on Flickriver

Earthly Remains

            This old cemetery lies at the bottom of a river valley. It's one of those places that I feel before I even arrive at. The emotion is somewhere along the lines of frantic sadness...the ambivalence of wanting to turn back but being drawn inexorably forward. Before I can decide, I turn the final bend in the road and there it is. And in that moment I still gasp. A hundred visits have yet to dispel that reaction. Even now I cannot quite believe what I'm seeing. It's a sort of living monument to mournful sadness. And depending on here I stand, it's as if I've traveled back into time, seeing this place as the Victorians did in the 19th century. The visuals only reinforce the sense of despair. It's imprinted on the land, not just the burial ground but the adjacent buildings and spaces. It's as if the hopelessness of the cemetery is slowly leaching out into the environs. I sometimes wonder if the location has something to do with that. As if this geographic basin as pooled generations of  sadness, the imprint of a succession of grieving families, and prevents it from escaping. Surely I can't be the only one to feel this, but there's never anyone here to ask. It's utterly desolate and somehow that feels right. Maybe things like this must be experienced alone (if they are to be experienced at all). I remember some volunteers worked here one summer to perform badly needed maintenance. One project involved a repaint of the old fence. But no amount of paint could conceal its grim darkness. Something about these old cemetery fences; they are so perfectly suited (visually) to their purpose of defining the boundary between life and death. A carryover that connects the past to the present, and I dread the day this one is torn down. I walked up and down the fence line on this raw autumn afternoon. I paused occasionally to touch the fence and feel its coldness against my fingers. The old crypt loomed balefully over me on the hillside.
   

Taken on: October 28, 2020

Tags:

death

dark

internment

burial

crypt

vault

mausoleum

Victorian

celebration

grim

drab

dreary

noir

shadowy

pervasive

forlorn

energy

boundary

witness

fleeting

overcast

desolate

windswept

barren

grave

memories

life

metaphor

imprint

mournful

grief

sadness

searching

cycles

seasons

generations

souls

baleful « less

Groups appears in: • Graves, Tombs And Cemeteries • Lucid & Mysterious more » • Eerie, creepy or spooky places • Haunted Houses, Buildings & Other Creepy Places • memento mori. • B&W DREAMS • Melancholy • Cemeteries - Cementerios - Friedhoefe - Cimetières - Cimiteri • ~*~Atmosphere~*~ • !nto the atmosphere • ..:: I LOVE DARK PHOTOS ::.. • The world through photography • Bleak • Mordus de photos Monochrome « less

Camera: Nikon D7000, f/6.7, 1/180 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 125 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7000
Lens:	18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/6.7
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/180)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	125
Exposure Bias:	-1/2 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 21.1 (Macintosh)
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