Not sure wether to post a

[Ron Marshall]

Ron,

The gravestone is dated 1886 as date of death. I'm sure there has to be some living desendents. It is of historical interest to me, but I'm not going to go as far as to ask permission from the family.

Of course everyone must decide for themselves. I stated the critiria I would use.

I said 1800, but what I was really thinking was far enough back that there would not be anyone living who had known the person. So on second thought about 1920 is probably a better date.

[John Kasaian]

I think Brian's sensitivity is commmendable. If his website is a commercial adventure for self promotion, one image more or less isn't going to make or break his reputation and using a grave for profit might well offend the deceased person's surviving family. IMHO, if its not worth asking permission, its not worth posting
for the purpose of commerce

[Randy H]

Why this one particular headstone? Does it have unique characteristics that would set it apart from any other? Does the pic fit in with the theme of pics it would reside with? Does it kinda say to you "I need to be here"? I have seen portfolios of headstones that are very interesting, in that they sought out the "unique". If it just another headstone, and you are having mis-givings about using it, for one reason or another, trash the pic.

[brian steinberger]

If I did post this image on my website I would certainly never print it for sale if someone did request. It would just be for me to showcase my view of the world for others to see, which is the pupose of all of our photography.

This gravestone was in a very old graveyard close to my home that had just been vandalized ( like two days before i went to visit). As I walked around i felt a wierd connection to this gravestone. Maybe it was the way it stood out from the others, or maybe the way it blended with the background of trees.

Randy, John, Ron and others, thanks for understanding, I think i've decided not to post.

[Capocheny]

I think Brian's sensitivity is commmendable. If his website is a commercial adventure for self promotion, one image more or less isn't going to make or break his reputation and using a grave for profit might well offend the deceased person's surviving family. IMHO, if its not worth asking permission, its not worth posting for the purpose of commerce

John, I absolutely concur with you on this...

Cheers

[cyrus]

People are perfectly free not to photograph or not to post images based on their own tastes, but since you're asking and for what its worth, personally I think this is overdoing it. This person has been dead for a very, very long time. You'd be perfectly in your rights (in NY) to photograph live person and sell their photos as "art" so I really don't see any reason to be concerned about photographing a bit of carved stone marker for someone who has been dead for more than 100 years nor is this really any sort of invasion of privacy of him or his descendants, legally or morally speaking. After all getting noticed is the whole purpose of having grave stones. Heck, the old fella's ghost may appreciate the attention!

[tim atherton]

Again, graves and graveyards are a (generally) public part of our society and culture. On the photographic side, whole books have been made about graveyards - and quit wonderfully so (Friedlander's Stegliano [sic] and Jame's on Mount Royal in Montreal come to mind) Sold for profit and reputation. At times we have hired our greatest landscape architects and designers to make the cemeteries (Olmsted etc).

On the other hand, when they become inconvenient or we need more room, it's not beyond our society to dig them up and use them for another purpose - they are not sacrosanct (and many an English churchyard has had the bones all dug up from previous generations, piled into a big hole in one corner to make room for more generations...).

I'm still not quite sure what the big problem is? I assume folks weren't thinking of using the picture in a Coca Cola ad?

[paulr]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this ... are you planning to photograph the grave before or after you rob it?

[Michael Daily]

There was a bit about "World War Z" on NPR today. Should we be worried about photographing public monuments? interesting people on the street? mountains? I think it should be a matter of personal taste and conscience. I think the dead have more interesting things to do than worry about mortals.
Michael

[cyrus]

Speaking of the dead - who is that one photographer who takes still-life style photos of dismembered human body parts (well, I guess describing this as "still life" is redundant!) I remember looking at a photo of a foot, placed on a table along with some flowers or something and wondering where people find this sort of stuff.

There was a guy in NYC last year who was busted because he had a grown tiger in his apartment (along with an aligator) And now this guy seems to be able to get ahold of dismembered feet and heads etc. Apparently there are tiger and body-part selling stores somewhere, and meanwhile I can't find a decent store to buy quality socks! SOCKS!