Dead Queens: The Cemeteries of New York City’s Largest Borough
This book--Dead Queens: The Cemeteries of New York City’s Largest Borough by Richard Panchyk--should be totally my thing, but I found it disappointing.
The histories of various Queens cemeteries were much appreciated, and I liked getting names and locations of places I haven't checked out myself yet. So the text was good. But the photography was mostly a letdown. So many photos were taken on dark, desolate, dull winter days... and so many of those desolate photos are frontloaded to the beginning of the book, which made me worry that all of them might be like this. (I shoot in the winter at times too, but specifically for a desolate aesthetic, to see statues and gravestones that are usually covered in leaves, or to capture snowy landscapes.) St. John's Cemetery's photos might also have been taken in a wintery look, but at least the sky is pretty in those shots. The photos in this book are very documentary, while I like some more aesthetic involved. They could be so much prettier, underlining the sentiment occasionally expressed in the text about how these cemeteries can be a peaceful nature walk, which you know I share. Spring and autumn can be so beautiful in them.
Things this local girl would've been happy to see: the Calvary Cemetery section doesn't include a photo of the massive Johnston mausoleum, the very monument that grabbed my interest (and my father's) while riding on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and made us want to go inside for a closer look. For the cemetery-related businesses, a photo of the Frank T. Lang building, what is currently Middle Village Body Works' location, would've been appreciated. It's crumbling but still way too grand for an auto body shop. From the Queens Chronicle: "Frank Lang built the massive structure early in the 20th century indicating the quality of his work. He was a builder of mausoleums and monuments and created many beautiful stone buildings in Lutheran and Saint John’s Cemetery..." He ran that business out of this building, which also held a funeral home for a while.
The histories of various Queens cemeteries were much appreciated, and I liked getting names and locations of places I haven't checked out myself yet. So the text was good. But the photography was mostly a letdown. So many photos were taken on dark, desolate, dull winter days... and so many of those desolate photos are frontloaded to the beginning of the book, which made me worry that all of them might be like this. (I shoot in the winter at times too, but specifically for a desolate aesthetic, to see statues and gravestones that are usually covered in leaves, or to capture snowy landscapes.) St. John's Cemetery's photos might also have been taken in a wintery look, but at least the sky is pretty in those shots. The photos in this book are very documentary, while I like some more aesthetic involved. They could be so much prettier, underlining the sentiment occasionally expressed in the text about how these cemeteries can be a peaceful nature walk, which you know I share. Spring and autumn can be so beautiful in them.
Things this local girl would've been happy to see: the Calvary Cemetery section doesn't include a photo of the massive Johnston mausoleum, the very monument that grabbed my interest (and my father's) while riding on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and made us want to go inside for a closer look. For the cemetery-related businesses, a photo of the Frank T. Lang building, what is currently Middle Village Body Works' location, would've been appreciated. It's crumbling but still way too grand for an auto body shop. From the Queens Chronicle: "Frank Lang built the massive structure early in the 20th century indicating the quality of his work. He was a builder of mausoleums and monuments and created many beautiful stone buildings in Lutheran and Saint John’s Cemetery..." He ran that business out of this building, which also held a funeral home for a while.