Decaying photos

April 11, 2008 12:48 AM

Decaying memorial photos at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
posted by parudox (14 comments total)

Reminds me of this shot I that took at a Hong Kong cemetery.
posted by bwg at 3:41 AM on April 11, 2008

Really captivating, thank you so much for sharing!
posted by headspace at 4:56 AM on April 11, 2008

I clicked every link in this FPP.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:32 AM on April 11, 2008

It seems that some were taken with glass negatives that themselves are cracked and decaying, covered with mold. Are they really old, or is Russia still using glass negs? In Russia negative decays you.
posted by Gungho at 6:13 AM on April 11, 2008

I was hoping to get good sleeps this weekend. Thanks.
posted by jimmythefish at 6:18 AM on April 11, 2008

I read somewhere (watts? campbell?) about the funerary practices somewhere in the South Pacific where the people use wooden posts as grave markers. The idea was that in the years that it took for the post to rot away to nothing, the memory of that person faded in the community. By the time the post was gone, no one really remembered the dead person. I always thought this was a great idea.

Before I go, I'm gonna try to get someone to promise me that they'll write my name in maple syrup on the sidewalk. In a few days, it'll stand out for all to see it covered with dead sticky ants. I'll be remembered to strangers, at least until the rains come.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:09 AM on April 11, 2008 [2 favorites]

I clicked every link too—I could gaze at those faces for a long time. Thanks much for the post. (In case anybody is wondering: columbarium.)
posted by languagehat at 7:17 AM on April 11, 2008

I don't think these are really creepy or heartbreaking, though. They're just people. I like to see what people are like in other places and times.
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:13 AM on April 11, 2008

The kids are heartbreaking.
posted by languagehat at 8:45 AM on April 11, 2008

Somewhere in this cemetery two generations of my family are buried.
posted by nasreddin at 9:39 AM on April 11, 2008

I have seen this first hand in Poland where I'm from, the cemeteries are much like the one's seen here. I don't think the pictures themselves are creepy (some can be), but the cemeteries are a different story. You wouldn't catch me at one during night time. Often when I visit my there I'll hear stories about how satanists desecrate these places, and it's sad to hear, because there is a certain beauty to them.
posted by lildice at 9:47 AM on April 11, 2008

Thanks for this post. This brought back a memory of being about eight years old, visiting the gravesites of my departed relatives, at a Lithuanian cemetery in Chicago. I was captivated by the photos on many of the headstones, especially the ones of children.
posted by medeine at 6:19 PM on April 11, 2008

This one looks like it's crying a fountain of tears.
posted by Locative at 12:07 AM on April 12, 2008

Haunting post. These kinds of memorial photographs have fairly recently begun showing up in Los Angeles, particularly in the Armenian section of Hollywood Forever (formerly Hollywood Memorial Park). When I first saw photo-marked graves, and especially the photo-realistically etched stone ones, I found them shocking and tasteless. But they've grown on me, and certainly reflect the city's changes.
posted by Scram at 9:53 PM on April 12, 2008