New Work: Graceland Cemetery

I finally reached my breaking point yesterday and decided that a careful trip to a location where I would be able avoid human proximity while getting out with my cameras was in order. One of the locations that I’ve wanted to visit for years was Graceland Cemetery on Chicago’s north side. It is the final resting place of many of Chicago’s most well known residents and home to some architectural icons. While a trip to a cemetery during a pandemic might seem macabre, it was open and someplace I felt that I’d be able to maintain social distancing at.

To own the fact that this was indeed a macabre sojourn during a health crisis, I started my photographic efforts at what is possibly the most haunting marker at the cemetery. This is Eternal Silence by Lorado Taft, marking the final resting spot of Dexter Graves:

Dexter Graves was an early settler of Chicago, leading a group of families from Ohio in 1831. The marker actually post dates the death of Graves by 65 years. The funds for it were provided in the will of his son, Henry, who died in 1907. The marker was erected in 1909. I wanted to maximize the unsettling feeling that Eternal Silence can project, so I chose a low angle. This also gave me the opportunity to feature the reflections of the still leafless trees on the black granite. I used a polarizer to maximize this effect. One day I hope to be able to shoot this monument in heavy fog.

My next stop was the tomb of Carrie Eliza Getty. Designed by architect Louis Sullivan, it was erected in 1890 by lumber baron, Henry Harrison Getty for his wife:

I’ve long been a fan of Louis Sullivan and this is one of his most iconic works. Sullivan is famously quoted as saying, “Form ever follows function.” I think that’s often misunderstood to mean that architecture need not have form. This building certainly disavows that notion. It features the beautiful geometry and decorative elements that were Sullivan hallmarks. And while the modernist movement in architecture would eventually eschew ornamentation, Sullivan stayed true to his style. Witness his “jewel boxes,” the banks of the Midwest that he designed late in his life. Jim Grey has a photo of one of the jewel boxes in West Lafayette, IN in his Operation Thin the Herd: Olympus XA blog post. Someday I’d love to make a project documenting these stunning buildings.

Stepping away from Sullivan for the moment (we’ll return to him twice more in this post), I’m going to take a completely different approach and evoke a bit of the photographer, William Eggleston with this shot:

In a cemetery absolutely chock full of architectural ostentation, I found some beauty in this maintenance building across from the bridge to Daniel Burnham’s grave. Something about the rust on the door, the interesting growth of the trees in front of the building, the ivy covering the corner and the quiet color of the scene called to me. Photographer Gary Bahnick has been posting a lot of Eggleston inspired work on Instagram lately and I think I had some of that aesthetic running through my mind when I took this photo.

Next are a couple of detail shots on a mausoleum that I forgot to get the name of. My apologies!

Next is a detail of the sphinx that is part of the Schoenhofen Mausoleum:

This mausoleum is one of the most eccentric in the cemetery. Designed by architect, Richard E Smith, it’s nominally Egyptian Revival but there are a lot of incongruencies to that appellation. For instance, right across from the sphinx is an angel. The doors to the mausoleum invoke Karnak but if you look through them, there’s a stained glass window that is completely Christian in design. I didn’t really photograph this one as well as I would have liked to but this was a popular spot for the few visitors to the cemetery and I didn’t want to take up too much time while they were keeping a generous 30′ away from me. I appreciated that for both social distancing reasons and for photographic reasons, so I limited my time to give them a turn. Someday I’ll be back and get more photos of the cognitive dissonance of this particular mausoleum.

Next is the entrance to the Martin Ryerson tomb. This is another of Louis Sullivan’s works in the cemetery:

While featuring far less ornamentation than Getty tomb, it still features the bold and inventive geometry of Sullivan. Again labeled as “Egyptian Revival” in its styling, this tomb has far less of an identity crisis. While some of the shapes of it indeed point back to ancient Egypt, it is distinctly Sullivan-esque throughout its whole. I found that I was most attracted to the contrast of the patinaed gates against the imposing, dark granite. I again used a polarizer on the shot, this time trying to minimize reflections in order to get the true color of the granite to pop.

My next stop was the dominant Palmer mausoleum:

If one had to name a Chicago figure that was as towering as the city itself, it’s hard to imagine a name more appropriate than Potter Palmer. An early dry goods merchant, he transformed that industry in the city. After the Chicago fire, he was one of the driving forces that rebuilt the city even bigger and better than it had been. Much of the city’s very structure from the existence of Lake Shore Drive to the establishment of State Street as a commercial fixture in the city owe their existence to Potter Palmer. Bertha Palmer is also a dominant fixture in the history of the city and was a driving force at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and a shrewd businesswoman in her own right; she nearly doubled the inheritance Potter had left her after his death. She also collected art for their castle-like home. Impressionist paintings by Monet, Renoir and Degas were part of the collection and now reside at the Art Institute of Chicago.

My next stop was a fairly recent addition to Graceland. Ernie Banks, affectionately known as “Mr. Cub,” was interred at Graceland after his death in 2015:

One of baseball’s greats, Banks played first base and short stop for the Cubs from 1953-1971. He accumlated 2,583 hits during his tenure, 512 of which were home runs. He made it into the hall of fame on his first ballot and is the first Cub to have his number retired by the organization. His legacy obviously still looms large as evidenced by this ball placed at the grave. The simple script left by an unknown fan seemed like a greater tribute than the whole of the monument that it rested on.

My next stop was the grave of Louis Sullivan himself. This monument was actually added later as a tribute to the man that did so much to bring the Chicago skyline into a new era:

Next are a pair of images of The Crusader, another monument sculpted by Lorado Taft:

This monument marks the grave of Victor Lawson. Lawson was a publisher of the Chicago Daily News and was president of the Associated Press from 1894-1900. The inscription at the bottom of The Crusader should be as integrally fused into the minds of journalists as the Hippocratic Oath is to doctors:

My final photo for this report is of the headstone of architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe:

Descending from the legacy of Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe was among the architectural pioneers of the modernist movement that extrapolated “form follows function” into an exercise in minimalism, making full use of newer building materials like steel. Whereas Sullivan’s works could still feature some ornate decoration, Mies van der Rohe’s works were elegant in their spartan simplicity. His marker is certainly in that vein. I was taken by its quiet sense of presence, reflecting the trees above it.

And that will wrap up this portion of the trip report. I did take along a couple of film cameras — my Rolleiflex 2.8D and my Zeiss Contaflex Super BC. I’ll be getting an order of film to send out soon since I still won’t be able to develop my own for more than a month (my developing supplies are at my Mom’s house and Illinois’ shelter in place order has been extended to May 30th). I’ll share any worthwhile shots from those cameras when the film gets back.

If you ever find yourself on the north side of Chicago and are looking for a unique location to explore the history and architecture of this fascinating city, I certainly recommend Graceland. The cemetery has a great wesbite, that features some great resources for visitors. There’s a map that features some of the more notable burial locations as well as photo gallery that shows many more views of this unique place.