Customer Reviews

Scoring in Heaven: Gravestones and Cemetery Art of the American Sunbelt States

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Without seeing the contents of this delightful book you might be inclined to think the subject of gravestones and cemetery markers a bit morbid. Happy to report, it is humorous, insightful, and most of all very upbeat. The cemetery monuments which most intrigue photographers Bunnen and Smith are those which give us an insight into the people whose lives they summarize. There are bowlers (the title of the book refers to an avid bowler who couldn't resist featuring his favorite passtime on his tombstone), booze lovers, mystics and motorcyclists. There are cowboys and klansmen, soldiers and surfers. The range of treatments is so astonishing, so upbeat, such fun, that the reader (well, the traveler/viewer--the book is almost all photographs) cannot help but begin thinking of his or her own funerary arrangements in a whole new light. The the real subject of this collection is one of vitality, personal expression, and hope of a heaven in which the people and activities we loved in life will be ours forever. If you like visual books, I urge you to track down a copy of this tome and share it with your friends.

Wonderful book. Fantastic pictures. My mother and I are huge cemetary buffs and visit new ones every chance we get. I purchased this as a gift for her and she loved it.

"...over 200 astonishing photographs, selected from over 13,000 taken taken in 677 cemeteteries throughout the American South and Southwest. They show grave ornaments like a six foot styrofoam Bugs Bunny, a giant concrete basket, dangling plastic telephones with the epitaph "Jesus called," empty picture frames, empty chairs, empty cribs, stopped clocks, and a myriad of the other samples of the workings of America's necropolitan psyche."

Surprising, moving, goofy.

This isn't just a tacky parade of camp, many of the images are as dignified or as spooky as they are incongruous.

A quality piece of work from Aperture: 163 pp, purple cloth over boards with a sewn binding, large oblong format, principally photographs. With a short journal memorializing the author's travels.

"...over 200 astonishing photographs, selected from over 13,000 taken taken in 677 cemeteteries throughout the American South and Southwest. They show grave ornaments like a six foot styrofoam Bugs Bunny, a giant concrete basket, dangling plastic telephones with the epitaph "Jesus called," empty picture frames, empty chairs, empty cribs, stopped clocks, and a myriad of the other samples of the workings of America's necropolitan psyche."

This isn't just a tacky parade of camp, many of the images are as dignified or as spooky as they are incongruous.

A quality piece of work from Aperture: 163 pp, purple cloth over boards with a sewn binding, large oblong format, principally photographs. With a short journal memorializing the author's travels.

"...over 200 astonishing photographs, selected from over 13,000 taken taken in 677 cemeteteries throughout the American South and Southwest. They show grave ornaments like a six foot styrofoam Bugs Bunny, a giant concrete basket, dangling plastic telephones with the epitaph "Jesus called," empty picture frames, empty chairs, empty cribs, stopped clocks, and a myriad of the other samples of the workings of America's necropolitan psyche."

This isn't just a tacky parade of camp, many of the images are as dignified or as spooky as they are incongruous.

A quality piece of work from Aperture: 163 pp, purple cloth over boards with a sewn binding, large oblong format, principally photographs. With a short journal memorializing the author's travels.