Photography courtesy of St. Louis Graves
You could surf for hours at Athena Hall’s St. Louis Graves Facebook page, and maybe you have. Hall posts several photos daily of headstones, both haunting and whimsical, from cemeteries local and far-flung. We caught up with this angel of deathly art, and probed the places where aesthetics meets oblivion.
How long have you been doing the St. Louis Graves Facebook page? Since October of 2012, but I’ve been taking pictures of graves a lot longer than that.
Why did you decide to start this page? I’ve been taking pictures in cemeteries for 12 years now, but I had no idea what to do with them.
How did you get into cemeteries and grave markers? When I was younger I can remember going to cemeteries with my mom. I think I talked her into it. Oak Hill Cemetery we used to go to a lot because it was close to my grandma’s house. They’re pretty, and if you’re into history and genealogy, you’ll find that you have to look for gravesites. Each grave and headstone means a lot to somebody. Even if it’s really old, at some point in time it was important to somebody’s loved one.
How often do you visit cemeteries? I do it as often as I can. I have three kids and a job, so I don’t get to go as often as I’d like. In the warmer weather, I drag my kids along with me. My oldest one thinks I’m a little weird.
Which cemeteries do you like to visit? The big ones are pretty and you can get good photos, but I like to look for smaller, older, more personal cemeteries, with homemade tombstones. Wherever I am, I keep my eyes open because you never know when you’re gonna drive past one. I get tips from my friends about interesting ones, too. Probably my favorite cemetery is Father Dickson in Crestwood. It’s a historic African-American cemetery. The graves are small, and I love the handmade ones. It’s taken care of by volunteers. Each grave has a mound of wood chips over it. Some are in the woods. Some are marked by metal posts because the headstone is missing or damaged.
Are there celebrities buried around these parts with headstones you appreciate? I like to go see William S. Burroughs at Bellefontaine. It’s not fancy. You’d expect more groupies, but it doesn’t seem to be that way.
I know what it’s like to get involved in taking photos in a large cemetery and then suddenly you’re lost. The first time I went to Calvary a couple summers ago, it was really hot out and I got turned around and got lost. It wasn’t scary, but it was annoying.
What do you envision for your own gravesite? I would want something that would catch someone’s eye from across the graveyard, so people could see it and head over. Some cemeteries don’t even allow dramatic tombstones now. They just want them small and square to help them with the grass-mowing. I’d want something kinda cheerful. Now they’re doing QR codes on headstones, which link you up with a website so you can watch videos and learn about the person who’s buried there.
Some of the headstone statuary you feature at your page, particularly some of the older European stuff, is just gorgeous. Why do you think we humans make remembrances that look like that? It’s how we tend to cover up the truth of death. We don’t want to think about the person decaying, so we put something nice there to look at. And statues make you think they’re in a much better place.
What are your thoughts on an afterlife? Personally, I’m an Asatru. It’s a northern religion. We believe in Odin, reincarnation into our own families, Valhalla, which is where Odin takes the fallen warriors, and Hel, spelled with one “l,” which is kind of a waiting place, not necessarily an awful place. We have a small “kindred” of seven or eight of us in St. Louis.
What’s wrong with modern American funerary rituals? I think people are too removed from what death really is, in general. They used to have the bodies in the home. People would have to wake up in the morning and deal with the fact that there’s a dead person in the room. You don’t see any of that now. You get a phone call, and you see them in the funeral home. I think we’ve lost a lot.
Would you like to return to the days of having picnics at cemeteries? It couldn’t hurt. I don’t think it’s for everybody. Rituals in our lives are really important, though. Whether it’s a positive thing like a baby or a wedding, or a not-so-positive thing like a death, it brings people together.
Have you ever made headstone rubbings? I tried doing that, and it’s not as easy as it sounds to make a good rubbing. I also worry about the cemetery “cops” yelling at me. That never happens at Bellefontaine, by the way—they love visitors.
How did you get the name Athena? My mom was really into Greek mythology. Some people get that confused with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and try to use it as a pickup line. Athena is war and wisdom. Big difference.
Anything you’d like to add? If you want to get out and walk your dog, you could do worse than a cemetery. You don’t have to be scared. It’s a quiet, relaxing place.
