August 31, 2020
Sorry but I think the Maben Angel is more attractive than most living women. Is that weird? She’s way fierce. So after I left my apartment within quarantine to get a Covid and antibodies test in advance of maybe returning to school next week, I paid her a visit. Because Read more…
August 23, 2020
I have to show you this clown motel, aptly named The Clown Motel. Tonoapah’s most popular attraction imparts a layer of color, terror and creepiness to the desert landscape, more so when you consider it sits right next to the Old Tonopah Cemetery. And both are rumored to be Read more…
August 13, 2020
I will be seeing several ghost towns on my trip through Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Though most will be at the latter end when I am away from the tricky landscapes–within previous Gold Rush hot spots. But Grafton, established 1859 on order of Mormon bigwig Brigham Young, is right outside Read more…
July 22, 2020
Since I declared my intention of visiting all of Virginia’s dark sky parks and camping three evenings, forces of nature have threw me some curveballs. But I subscribe to several related philosophies that have me generally accepting, catching curveballs and admiring each. Though my que sera sera-ness might not serve Read more…
June 30, 2020
Like most beautiful cemeteries (and asylums) I can spend hours within, Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, a National Historical Place, was established in the mid-1800’s. I explored most of its 555 acres with my rental car because the heat was unbearable. But I ran out of the car like 600 Read more…
June 18, 2020
Since I returned to my school briefly of course I had to visit Green-Wood Cemetery. And yet again I saw some things I had never seen before! After all my visits I am still quite sure there are paths I have never walked down… things I have yet to admire. Read more…
June 12, 2020
An afternoon at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery would bring new discoveries, even more reasons to love its grounds. And since I’ve been carless for 11 days , I walked there from my apartment… just to see how long it would take. It was an easy walk that I’ll likely do again! Read more…
May 31, 2020
With some itineraries including the exploration of Ghost Towns in Pennsylvania and Nevada, I am starting a new Urban Exploration category with this first post about an abandoned village in New Jersey: Feltville. The remains of the this village established in 1845 lies within the Watchung Reservation in Berkeley Heights, Read more…
May 25, 2020
The burial ground for the unclaimed deceased patients of The Connecticut Valley State Hospital was active between 1878 through 1950. The small historically protected cemetery located in Middletown, Connecticut contains 1,686 numerical markers, each a life lost at the psychiatric hospital. Though the names of the interred remained private as Read more…
April 28, 2020
On my to-do list this afternoon: Lay under a Cherry Blossom tree. ✅ And if it’s on my list, it’s going to get done. Until I get myself to Japan for Hanami (on my list, so.. you know), I will run to Green-Wood annually when the cherry blossoms are in Read more…
April 19, 2020
Though it has become a source of disturbance and confusion, my want to uncover the abandoned lands that hold lost asylum patients has compelled me to trudge into thorny thickets now thrice. (Sorry, watching a Jane Austen movie). I was a bit uneasy this visit, having caught sight of several Read more…
April 15, 2020
Of course I had to throw in a couple of macabre stops while I was in New Jersey for its beautiful tulip fields. After a quick recon mission at the still partially functioning Trenton State Hospital, now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, I deemed it worthy for a return at a later Read more…
April 13, 2020
The Eastern Gate of Heaven When I, upon returning home, realized I had missed seeing the Harlem Valley State Hospital’s cemetery, I knew I’d be back soon. The grounds of its Potters Field, called The Gate of Heaven, are very isolated… in the middle of the woods as you can Read more…
April 2, 2020
I took a bike ride to see the flowering trees at Green-Wood. The ride was rough as I am totally lacking in cardiovascular endurance. But boy was I thankful for my lung capacity, the strength in my legs, my health in general–my ability to put something on my list of Read more…
February 28, 2020
It’s been a while since I visited one of my favorite places in Brooklyn, Green-Wood Cemetery. Come to think of it, I haven’t really been hitting any cemeteries as of late and time did not allow a visit to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on my LA trip. I miss graving! Read more…
February 3, 2020
Letchworth Village‘s cemetery, like that of many state-run institutions, marks its graves with nothing but a number. No dates, no names. The state policy adopted by the Office of Mental Health is to keep burial records for state mental hospitals confidential. But this practice is dated and marked with indignity, Read more…
January 31, 2020
When I was scanning satellite maps around the former grounds of The Central Islip State Hospital, I couldn’t happen but notice this: And I knew exactly what it was. The old patient cemetery or the Potter’s Field as almost all of the buried remains are marked only with a small Read more…
January 19, 2020
For my return to Queens’ Cemetery Belt, a couple of Jewish cemeteries for a change. Compared to the dramatic often grandiose funerary art within Christian cemeteries, customs differ greatly in Jewish burials, including unadorned graves that are simple in decoration. Considering, there were some strays from tradition to photograph. Specifically, Read more…
December 28, 2019
I really wish I lived closer to Woodlawn Cemetery‘s 400 acres, the grounds of my Bronx angel hunt. It is one of my favorites in New York City. One can easily lose an entire day here. But I fine-tuned my search by hunting down the familiar angel faces I saw Read more…
December 22, 2019
There are tons of cemeteries adjacent to each other in Queens in an area called the Cemetery Belt. There are so many cemeteries in this vicinity that my visit today barely scratched the surface! My mission was to try out my new camera and familiarize myself with the area for Read more…
December 18, 2019
In the oldest cemetery on Staten Island I found another reason to enjoy graving… intricately carved death heads and winged soul effigies, the topic of this angel-ish hunt in the 5 boroughs. Typical of gravestones from the 1600 and 1700’s, these decorative features were the earliest form of funerary art Read more…
December 7, 2019
Old Calvary Cemetery is one of the first cemeteries I wandered into as a young graver. It is a dizzyingly large cemetery with endless angels, 3 million about. That’s right–its 365 acres has the most interments in the entire country. And many of my pictures will show just how jam-packed Read more…
November 13, 2019
A brief jaunt in East Patchogue, Long Island would have food, fun and photographs. To follow, some highlights of the area… if you happen to like vegan food, nature and cemeteries like me. Door dashed my breakfast because who the heck wants to get dressed and jump in the car Read more…
November 2, 2019
After some errands I decided the light was too perfect to resist going to Green-Wood Cemetery. This being only the second time photographing the cemetery using manual settings, I gave myself the assignment of taking lady portraits. Close up and intimate on their grief. The cemetery was far too busy Read more…
October 20, 2019
{It’s My Party 🎉, Part 3} Of course there is a historic rural cemetery on my list! Home to the devastatingly wicked Haserot Angel, Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland has been on the very top of my list for quite some time. I’ve been to many cemeteries and this one has Read more…
October 13, 2019
As soon as my friend started describing his new seasonal side gig, terrorizing people at an old Victorian mansion on Staten Island, I knew he was referring to the Kreischer House. And I knew I’d now get to go inside the beautiful home I spied this summer. Dead By Dawn, Read more…
