Sacred Snow

After a couple of missed opportunities to return to Wesleyan Cemetery in the snow i finally made my way back there yesterday. Given the forecasted warming trend for the week it was probably a good thing as all this lovely white stuff will most likely be gone by Thursday.
(Click on any image for an enlarged gallery viewing)

©David Sorcher 2014

I struggled with how to present these, color or Black & White. The stones did have some lovely subtle colors in them, but in the end i went for the B&W treatment, mostly because with all the snow it gave the over all image a stronger continuity. 

©David Sorcher 2014

Mother Nature and Father Time own all things material. Gravestones well over 100 years old are slowly swallowed by trees that were mere saplings when the stones were first laid. 

©David Sorcher 2014

An unusual mirrored marker reflects the cemetery behind it. 

©David Sorcher 2014

One of the things i have always found so interesting about old cemeteries is the irony of fading tombstones. Markers left behind declaring that yes, we once lived, we once existed, are slowly wiped clean of names and dates by wind and rain, lichen and time. There is a certain bittersweetness to this secondary loss of the lost that borders on the poetic. 

©David Sorcher 2014

Wesleyan was actually founded in 1843, but some bodies, including whole families, were moved there from certain over-crowded Downtown cemeteries after the fact, so dates can be found on some gravestones that actually pre-date the founding.  

©David Sorcher 2014

Angel or goddess? The wings would suggest the first, but the bird at her feet, which looks very owl-like to me, could imply a connection to Athena. Perhaps her secret is hidden in her lost details.