Calvary Cemetery Angel
April 30, 2009: This last weekend, my friend Jose and I made the pilgrimage to Grayson County in search of a cemetery we had heard about from a couple we met on another adventure last year. We were in search of an angel reported to be an incredible, dramatic example of the finest in monuments to the deceased. I did my homework in advance and located what looked like the appropriate cemetery in Denison via an Internet search and off we went. When we arrived at Calvary Cemetery, it was immediately obvious we had found what we were looking for. This Catholic cemetery on the outskirts of the city is set among native old growth trees and open rolling hills. Complete with a pair of Roadrunners who make this site their home, this classic Texas Necropolis was a delight to visit and photograph.
During our short investigation of the city, we found a very unusual home across the street from a Baptist church. While photographing this unusual example of mixed architecture, we had the good fortune to encounter two local residents who pointed us in the direction of the Pilot Knobs Cemetery (which we located and photographed) and told us about a Confederate Cemetery in a neighboring community I now need to research. If you have any specific information about any unique Texas cemeteries you’d like to share, I’ll add it to my list of projects.
March 34, 2009: Three new cemeteries added as a result of our anniversary get-away to Winstar (to see Bonnie Raitt (and make our contribution to the Chickasaw Nation education fund…) On our way back we decided to take the scenic route through Gainesville, Whitesboro and Celina (and Gunter and several other little remote Texas towns), which gave me the opportunity to photograph Crossroads Cemetery in Celina, which caught my attention several months ago. En route we discovered the Oakwood Cemetery in Gainesville and an obscure family cemetery in Whitesboro. Enjoy.
For those who haven’t discovered my Cemeteries website, NecropolisCreep.net, it’s a pet project I’ve had for a few years now, to ‘collect’ and preserve these resting places for our ancestors in a digital format. Many images are creatively manipulated for effect, yet many are left as-is, depending on how I perceived the area at the time. In our travels around Texas (and the world) I have been fortunate enough to discover some gems of local necropoli which I have preserved for your enjoyment and edification.
The most recent addition is Bethel Cemetery in Frisco, Texas. It’s been ‘on my list’ for months and just recently I had the opportunity to examine it in detail for several hours, making a second trip on a day when we had especially attractive clouds to enhance the imagery. One of the features I find interesting about Bethel is the linear rows of monuments, unusual in this part of the world for Settler Cemeteries, most of which seem to exhibit a ‘random order’ to their organization.
This is the first project utilizing my LensBaby selective-focus lens, which allows me to create a unique perspective in my composition. It’s an unusual effect, which I feel enhanced this particular topic.
Enjoy.