Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful

Angel in Highgate

Twenty years ago this month, I went to Europe for the first time.  I ended up in Highgate Cemetery by accident, after finding John Gay’s Victorian Valhalla in the bookshop in Victoria Station.  The sky was threatening and gray.  The wind was chilly and damp.  Still, primroses bloomed in the hollows under the trees.  Angels stood everywhere, luminous.

In my mind, the excessively feminine winged guardians have more kinship with the fairy godmothers of my childhood than with the stern warriors of the Bible.  Something about their serenity, their total devotion, seems too intensely focused to survive the real world.  Silhouetted against the white January sky, standing their posts come rain or snow, the angels of Highgate inspired me to photograph as many of their kindred as I could before neglect destroyed them.  Since then, I’ve photographed angels in graveyards around the world.

Cemetery of the Week #2: Highgate Cemetery in London, England

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About Loren Rhoads

For 10 years, I edited the nonfiction magazine Morbid Curiosity. Scribner published some of my favorite essays from the magazine as Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues. Soon I'll have a book of cemetery travel essays called Wish You Were Here coming out. In addition to CemeteryTravel.com, I blog about writing at the Red Room.
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9 Responses to Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful

  1. Amar Naik says:

    nice photo

  2. Yes, Peaceful! It’s interesting how many of us gravitate to images of angels. There is something very comforting. I really enjoy your cemetery visits! I look forward each time to “where is she now?” Debra

  3. jakesprinter says:

    Great entry Loren excellent photos ;)

  4. Madman says:

    Peaceful indeed and awesome picture! Thanks for the share :-)

  5. Karen says:

    This photo really caught my eye. It’s a perfect representation of “peaceful.”

  6. Pingback: Cemetery of the Week #2: Highgate Cemetery | Cemetery Travel: Adventures in Graveyards Around the World

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