Some people think it is strange, morbid or even disrespectful. Others visit to trace family history. Some stumble across them unknowingly. I can not explain what draws me personally to the cemeteries and grave sites of the old west- All I know is that I can spend an afternoon alone, totally content, walking among the overgrown plots, the toppled headstones, the rusting fences, and the dilapidated wooden crosses that dot the hillsides and meadows. To me, there is great comfort in the solitude of these places. I’ve often been called an “old soul” and perhaps that “old soul” inside of me feels compelled to stop and walk among the past, looking for familiar names of long ago friends. These old graveyards just have an “energy” or a “feel” about them, some good, some bad, there’s just a presence that can be felt, and when you spend as much time in them as I have, you know without a doubt, that “souls” exist even after the mortal body ceases to. I don’t know, and I can’t explain it, all I know is cemeteries are some of my favorite subject matter- Whether a grave be marked by the simplest wooden cross or barely perceptible pile of rocks, or be it topped with a hand carved marble tombstone and surrounded by an ornate iron fence, all I do know is forgotten cemeteries make fantastic photographs.
These photos were taken at the cemetery in Sego Canyon, Utah
Life...Death...Iron 