Blogfinger

Brewer cemetery. Farmingdale, NJ. Paul Goldfinger photo © 2014.  Re-posted from 2015.

By Paul Goldfinger, Photography Editor @Blogfinger

Photographers are sometimes drawn to cemeteries because they can be dramatic and lovely. But I rarely see a cemetery in an art gallery—I guess they don’t sell well. In my case, I almost never photograph in a cemetery because it’s depressing.

About the only time I get interested is if there is historical context, such as with this 18th century cemetery in Farmingdale. There is something mysterious and brooding about this place. I actually enjoyed walking around there and trying to read the nearly obliterated inscriptions.

I have visited cemeteries in Boston and New Brunswick which go back to the Revolutionary War, and they are absolutely fascinating if not beautiful. Another gorgeous place is the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah where Johnny Mercer resides. You can take a ghost tour in Savannah. I have photos. (Remember the book/movie Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil—-set in Savannah)

But this place in Farmingdale, with its lonely setting, sitting forlornly by the side of a country road, seems wonderfully haunting.

You know, the Albatross Hotel on Ocean Pathway in Ocean Grove served as a setting for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. This Farmingdale cemetery would be great for HBO’s True Blood.

You can almost see the vampires coming out of the ground during the night to fly into Ocean Grove and seek some juicy jugular veins.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT   from his album Want One

Read Full Post »