Finding Beauty in Cleveland’s Historic Lake View Cemetery

February 24, 2015  •  Leave a Comment
© Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel © Barney Taxel Cover of "The Lake View Cemetery." © The University of Akron Press/Barney Taxel

Barney Taxel moved to Cleveland from New York City in 1967. Since then, he’s worked as a studio and location photographer for a variety of clients in both the editorial and commercial worlds. He’s also developed a photographic relationship with the city of Cleveland, documenting Cleveland’s West Side Market, one of the country’s oldest operating public markets, and most recently, Lake View Cemetery.

Founded in 1869, Lake View Cemetery was modeled the cemeteries of Victorian England and France, which provided tranquil escapes from bustling cities. Lake View, located on a 285-acre plot of land, was designed to “combine all the attractive features that ‘nature and true art can produce’ to harmonize nature’s alphabet—’stone, earth, wood and water,'” according to an 1870 Cleveland Plain Dealer report Taxel cites. The cemetery is also the permanent resting place for Cleveland’s most prominent citizens, including President James A. Garfield, John D. Rockefeller, and J.H. Wade.

Taxel spent moare than a decade photographing every architectural detail and curious tombstone for his new book, The Lake View Cemetery. The book also includes famous monuments, the Wade Chapel, memorials and historic information.


Comments

No comments posted.
Loading...