The Marble Orchard

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I don’t consider myself particularly morbid, but I have taken a number of photographs in cemeteries. My father used to call cemeteries “marble orchards” and I never forgot. I’m pretty sure it is the unusual, amusing and ironic that draws me to these places and except for the remarkable energy burst that shut down my camera near Albany, New York in 1983, all these photographs are pretty straight forward.

The first cemetery picture I took was purely by accident, that of a child’s grave from the mid-1800’s decorated with plastic flowers. I had a flat tire, and while the tire was being fixed I wandered into a cemetery next door to the service station, saw the grave, thought it was unusual and snapped a picture. Over the years, I've taken many more in locations all over the world. In 1999 I created a limited edition book with the same title. It is filled with some of the more ironic photographs I've taken in cemeteries.