The New Orleans Collection: Cemetery

Call it what you will, but New Orleans cemeteries get me going. The history, the people, the quiet space that it provides. It’s all so appealing to me. There are plenty of tours a person could go on and see certain tombs, specific people buried, but I prefer going on my own. It’s nothing for me to spend a couple of hours walking around the cemetery on a gorgeous day in the city. Making my way around town to different cemeteries that are lesser visited is a solo activity that I enjoy, which is why I chose to add a scene to The New Orleans Collection.

My favorite cemetery is called Metairie Cemetery. Fun fact: when you open this link, it shows a statue of two children. They are my grandmother and her brother who posed for that statue. Pretty rad, huh? How could I not include this cemetery in The New Orleans Collection? The cemetery itself is so expansive, clean, and its history is really interesting. It used to be a racetrack, after all. Read the history in that link. You are going to die from the irony. Pun intended, but it's a really good story nonetheless. Read more about the neighborhood the cemetery borders. Being a realtor in the city, I have lots of insight to the locations I'm shooting and have so much to share.

Roaming this place could take days. I typically pick a section, drive up to it, and just walk and shoot. Photos, that is. I’m not looking for ways to be a permanent resident yet. On a beautiful day, there is nothing more grounding and calming than being amongst a true city of the dead. The tombs look as big as some houses. While people aren’t dating back to the 1100s, there are some pretty old tombs here. And that is what I chose to put in The New Orleans Collection. The age, the growth on the tomb…it’s fascinating. You can hop on the streetcar and get off at the end of the Canal Street line. It’s a little bit of navigating to get to, but I think it’s worth it. And good luck finding these particular tombs. They’re buried deep in the cemetery.