Locomotives Cemetery In Bolivia

When you think of the cemetery, you do not think of anything pleasant, but this is a graveyard for the locomotives and certainly looks interesting ...

Life In The Cemetery

In Manila, where housing and hope are in short supply, some people have come up with a novel alternative to their housing woes.

Manila's North Cemetery offers a respite for some, a place to rest, not just for the dead — but for about 10,000 living, breathing souls who call the cemetery home. The cemetery, covering more than 100 acres with a main street lined with shade trees and bright pink bougainvillea. The street is kept tidy by city workers who come often to sweep and cart away the trash.

Clare Ventura, a 28-year-old vendor and mother of three, has lived in the cemetery all her life.

"I've had to teach myself to like living here … because we can't afford to rent a place outside," she says. "And also this is where I have a chance to earn a little bit. You get used to it, and it's a lot safer here than most places outside."

Many families like Ventura's came as caretakers, hired by prominent families to clean the mausoleums and protect them from vandals.

Not Sad Cemetery

I have always had a strange, sort of, interest in the "life" of a cemetery.
So many people are afraid or do not treat the place with respect.
In fact while I was photographing these shots there was a group of kids playing frisbee. . .they did seem to be on the roads or I would have had to speak up. This project for Find A Grave has led me to a few thoughts about how to handle the photos. I need to take a wash cloth with me to clean the headstones before photographing. . .not all of them, but the bird poo and slugs in some cases seemed disrespectful to me.