Customer Reviews

Beautiful Death: The Art of the Cemetery (Penguin Studio Books)

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To appreciate this is book of art you have to be able to look past all preconceived ideas of cemetaries and dying and look further into a higher realm of spirituality. The monuments featured in this book speak of something other than death - they speak of the person that lives on and the people that are left behind to remember them. Looking through the pages I felt a connection to another world that was very much alive. When you look at each picture you can feel the emotion. The monuments whisper to you from beneath the vines and the algae that threaten to keep their secrets forever. Looking at all of this one must wonder why so many feel the need to express their grief in such a manner? When I look at the pictures, the beautiful aged monuments tell a story of their own and possess their own mortality, especially the ones that mimic our image. Seeing their bodies covered in snow or their faces that have aged like our mortal ones instill a sense of fragility among the living and the dead alike. There is no escaping the inevitable and if you could just look past the marble and granite you would see the souls that are trying to tell you their story. After I read this book I longed to see Pere-Lachaise in Paris. I finally got the opportunity five months ago. Being there was the most surreal experience I have ever had. I found many of the monuments shown and I have to say David Robinson's photography speaks to us in a way that no spoken language can. Pere-Lachaise is over 105 acres of remarkable ethereal beauty. Cemetaries are usually thought of as the land of the dead but this book will show you how alive death can be. After you view this book you will not only see beauty, you will feel it. And if you are one of the lucky ones you will realize that cemetaries are alive and if you listen closely, you will feel what they have to say.

Cemeteries are like galleries of the dead, mausoleums and tombstones etched with the intricacy of a sculptor's chisel. Art of the Cemetery is a gorgeous visual journey into some of the most elegant and quaint gravesides around the world. Horror writer Dean Koontz reflects upon mortality while discussing his personal insights about death, and speaks about the sense of quiet charms that permeate cemeteries from New Orleans to tiny cemeteries hidden away in corners of the world. The pictures in the book represent lavish and sometimes forgotten memorials, and serve as ceremonials to the dead, whether the dearly departed are famous graves buried within Paris' Pere Lachaise cemetery or unmarked tombs decorated in simple yet loving care. Many of the tombs are studies in beauty, and photographer David Robinson's pictures paint an ethereal eye over many of the locations, giving testimony to cemeteries as artistic havens of extraordinary form and decadence. Koontz explores the perceptions of death and the afterlife by reflecting on the history of cemeteries, his eloquent words giving a sense of humanity to the imagery of death. The pictures show remarkably beautiful cemeteries, such as the Montmartre in Paris and the Jewish cemetery in Prague. The idea of transcendence is evoked through the pages, with images of exquisite emblems of wreaths and personal items left on graves to remember the dead. There seems to be a story behind many of the grave sites shown, which makes the book a fascinating exploration each time it's looked at. While the book does depict symbols and artwork of the silent world of the cemetery, it's not a somber portrayal that will sadden. The book's depictions of angelic statues and carven marble resting places serves to uplift the common misconception about death as a final end. To view the pictures and epitaphs from tombs of lovers and children is to visit an unknown soul's home, leaving your thoughts like flowers at their feet.

Dean Koontz did a beautiful job with this book of photographs of cemeteries, writing words that whisper softly into the ear and which match the photos perfectly. This is a lovely book.

Because of David Robinson's lyrical writing and photographs I was inspirted to learn art photography and fly to Paris to photograph cemetery sculptures. A life-changing book.

Capturing a work of art (in this case sculptures) using photography can be somewhat challenging. David Robinson does an excellent job of portraying the beauty of cemetery art, while making art of his own. Originally I found this book at my local library some years ago and fell in love with it. Eventually I bought it and many photos inspired me in a series of paintings I did that year.

I enjoyed this small book, ...IN PARTS!
The photographic section on Pere Lachaise is without doubt the most beautiful and moving section.
That particular cemetery seems rare in that amongst it's collection of amazing examples of western funerary art, it almost totally avoids the sentimental christian hackneyed iconography so commonly employed in most other burial grounds. Indeed, the later photographs of tombs in the other countries that are included in this book are full of those soppy weeping nightie-clad angels leaning on crosses, cranky looking fat cherubs and a plague of those grim looking photographic plaques of the Dear Deceased, ....looking even grimmer!
If, like me, you do NOT find cemeteries at all depressing but a contemplative, slightly wistful place to just roam and ponder on the lives and experiences lived by those who have gone before, then you will certainly enjoy the photos here of monuments raised by the living to honour and recall their dead.
Now to the text.
The book opens with a very long essay by Dean Koontz that I waded through. I use that word deliberately. It is little more than an outpouring of personal angst against his insensitive and brutish Father, ....and Koontz's own recriminations and justifications for his decision not to bury him in the already reserved space beside his predeceased Mother, ...whom he beatifies to Mother Teresa proportions for her saintly sufferings of ill-health and an abusive marriage.
Now however deep and meaningful this may be to Koontz, and however cathartic it is for him to "get-it-all-out", it has very little to do with the content or subject matter of the photographs in this volume.
His dissertation is LONG, ...VERY! Unless you are one of those people who revel in other's personal demons and self-psycho-analysis, jump straight to the very evocative photographs, ...keeping in mind that the Pere Lachaise ones are by far the best.
The book concludes with another essay by David Robinson, ...(the photographer), who manages to write a relevant and informative history of 19th century and later burial and memorial conventions, with an interesting view on why a need was felt to raise such costly and elaborate grave markers. This is the piece that SHOULD have prefaced the photos, ....eliminating the other outpourings of self-guilt by Koontz.
Being a very frequent visitor to Pere Lachaise myself, I continue to search for a definitive book on that most marvellous galleries of 19th/20th century western funerary art, .....which I must say seems yet to be produced. I cannot believe that so many people write of and comment on the wonderful atmosphere and contemplative features of the cemetery, and yet there is still no major book covering the art and history to be found in this most evocative of places. There are only a handful of guide-books available, some with pictures included, but nothing like the grand treatment this place REALLY deserves.

I'm giving this book a three star rating. The photographs themselves are perhaps worth more, specially those in Pere Lachaise. Robinson obviously spent most of his time there....the other countries tend to get a fairly peremptory treatment with less photos, particularly London where there are some truly amazing examples I thought would have fitted very well into the photographer's stated intent and vision.

It's printed on good glossy paper, ...but by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject. Given such a great title as "Beautiful Death", there are many more monuments that clamour for inclusion, even if the photographer had just restricted his work to the one cemetery alone.
Although already a fairly slim volume, ....it could have been much improved if made even slimmer by the deletion of that first
over-wrought venting from Koontz, ...which really only opens up a dark and ugly tomb of his own making rather than adding to the intent of this work.

Buy this book if you like this sort of intimations of mortality feeling, ...but far, FAR better still, put the money towards a trip to see Pere Lachaise for yourself.
Now it's TRULY to die for!