A Portrait of Remembrance
“A fine art documentary project at historic Rookwood Necropolis Cemetery that satisfies the eye, the mind and the heart focusing on how people are remembered.
“When one of us dies, there will be somethings the other will never be able to talk of with anyone else.”
Why colour images are mixed with black and white images
Walking through the cemeteries many of the newer graves have flowers left behind by those visiting and remembering their loved ones. Using colour completes my vision for how people express their love, remembrance and the passing of time.
References:
Symbols: Flowers and the Frailty of Life. Symbols have been used on tombstones for centuries. ... The Victorians were enamored with flowers, which were known to have their own language. Give a woman a red rose and that signified love, a yellow rose indicated friendship, and a white rose meant innocence or secrecy. (A Grave Interest 11 Feb 2020)
Flowers were placed on the graves of Greek warriors. It was believed that if the flowers took root and blossomed on the graves, the souls of the warriors were sending a message that they had found happiness in the next world. The ancient Romans also used flowers to honor soldiers who had died in battle. (Why Are Flowers Placed on Graves, 11 Feb 2020)
FRONT COVER TITLE
ROOKWOOD
A Portrait of Remembrance
Peter Smith
Rookwood Memorial Gardens & Crematorium in Sydney’s western suburbs is remarkable for a number of reasons, not least its size. With more than a million souls laid to rest there, it’s the largest cemetery in the southern hemisphere, Australia’s oldest place of interment, and the world’s largest Victorian cemetery still in operation.
The dearly departed have been laid to rest at Rookwood since 1867. At one point the necropolis was even served by its own railway line with the deceased arriving from Sydney’s Central Station twice a day. And with over 90 different religious and cultural groups represented there via numerous monuments, memorials, war graves, gardens of remembrance, mausoleums and chapels, you will find online resources and books documenting Rookwood’s size and importance. But my interest in Rookwood is not about numbers.
I have come to view Rookwood from the perspective of remembrance. Every single one of its silent inhabitants was unique in their own way. And I wanted to capture the essence of commemoration – the ways in which we remember our loved ones after they’ve ceased to be.
I wanted to explore this thing called remembrance. What is it? How do we do it? And is the way we express loss and mourning related to wealth, culture, religion, societal norms or simply personal taste?
The art of dying
Death is petrifying to many and thanatophobia has been a regular visitor to my bedside since adolescence, poking at my consciousness and gnawing at my peace of mind, keeping me from slumber. I drive past Rookwood twice a day, every day and on one particular journey I was drawn to go in. What I discovered amazed me. Gazing at names on headstones I felt a connection: these are not just letters chiseled, etched or lasered into stone – these people lived – they were real people with stories to tell. But the only way to start to unpick those stories is by analyzing what you can see before your eyes. Some of the clues come not from words, but iconography and symbolism: Celtic crosses, broken columns, vases draped in cloth…
In some cases entire families died on the same day in what one can only assume are tragic circumstances, and it’s important to remember the loss, even if they are strangers who lived a century ago. Clearly, that was the purpose of their loved ones when they put headstones and memorials in place. Choices are of course dictated by religion, culture, wealth and undoubtedly, trends. During Victorian times it wasn’t unusual to find people enjoying a day out at Rookwood, picnicking amongst the scroll-decorated plinths and memento mori – but these days the site is often empty – mourners perhaps preferring to lay it all bare up front via digital photographs and long inscriptions that read like Facebook statuses telling all there is to know.
There’s often a great poignancy in the contrasting ways in which families choose to remember: a very simple tombstone with a few gut-wrenching words alongside an elaborate, angel-bedecked stone urn creates great juxtaposition. So this project aims to bear witness to that intention of commemoration, exploring the theme: how will my loved ones remember me when I’m gone?
“There are two parties to the suffering that death inflicts; and, in the apportionment of this suffering, the survivor takes the brunt.”
Catholic Metropolitan Cemetery Land Manager North East Corner
Catholic Metropolitan Cemetery Land Manager North East Corner - Reprocessed
Section A
Eastern Orthodox, Methodist/Wesleyan, Presbyterian/ Non-Denomination, Independent, Jewish and Chinese
Section A
Eastern Orthodox, Methodist/Wesleyan, Presbyterian/ Non-Denomination, Independent, Jewish and Chinese - Reprocessed
Section B
Anglican, Naval, Heritage and Non-Denominational
Section B
Anglican, Naval, Heritage and Non-Denominational - Reprocessed
Section C
Anglican, Non-Denominational and Heritage
Section C
Anglican, Non-Denominational and Heritage - Reprocessed
Section D
Anglican and Non-Denomination
Section D
Anglican and Non-Denomination - Reprocessed
Section E
Orthodox, Armenian, Assyrian Church of the East, Assyrian Christian and Non-Denomination
Section E
Orthodox, Armenian, Assyrian Church of the East, Assyrian Christian and Non-Denomination - Reprocessed
Section F
Eastern Orthodox, Methodist, Lutheran/Estonian, Independent, Muslim, Baby Lawn and Ukrainian
Section F
Eastern Orthodox, Methodist, Lutheran/Estonian, Independent, Muslim, Baby Lawn and Ukrainian - Reprocessed
Section G
Jewish
Section G
Jewish - Reprocessed
Section H
Chinese, Druze, Hindu, Khmer, Maori, Vietnamese, Mandaen, Childrens, Non-Denominational, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish
Section H
Chinese, Druze, Hindu, Khmer, Maori, Vietnamese, Mandaen, Childrens, Non-Denominational, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish - Reprocessed
Section I
Orthodox, Indo Chinese, Non-Denominational and Chinese
Section I
Orthodox, Indo Chinese, Non-Denominational and Chinese - Reprocessed
Section J
Muslim and Jewish
Section J
Muslim and Jewish - Reprocessed
Catholic Metropolitan Cemetery Land Manager South West Corner
Catholic Metropolitan Cemetery Land Manager South West Corner - Reprocessed
New South Wales Garden of Remembrance, Sydney War Cemetery
New South Wales Garden of Remembrance, Sydney War Cemetery - Reprocessed
Rookwood Memorial Gardens
Rookwood Memorial Gardens - Reprocessed
Potential Poems, Quotes and words from songs for the book
“#1 Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here.
Used in Book”
“#2 Unseen, unheard but always near.
Sill loved, still missed, and very dear.
Used in Book”
“#3 One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.
Used in Book”
“#4 Remember me in your heart:
Your thoughts, and your memories,
Of the times we loved,
The times we cried,
The times we fought,
The times we laughed.
For if you always think of me, I will never have gone.”
“#5 Remember friend as you pass by
as you are now, so once was I
as I am now so will you be,
prepare yourself to follow me.
Used in Book”
“#6 We are all stories in the end, remembered by the adventures we had, the achievements we made and the people we loved.
Used in Book”
“#7 Love never dies
Once it is in you
Life may be fleeting
Love lives on
Used in Book”
“#8 It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.
Partially used in Book”
“#9 I stand still inhaling the beauty of our memories,
Flashbacks of our togetherness burn my flesh
and I breathe love through every single skin pore.”
“#10 We thought to weep, but sing for joy instead,
Full of the grateful peace
That follows her release;
For nothing but the weary dust lies dead.”
“#11 Beauty exists not in what is seen and remembered, but in what is felt and never forgotten.”
“12 You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
“#13 Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.
Used in Book”
“#14 Love lives on
Beyond goodbye
The truth of us
Will never die
Used in Book”
“#15 Someone mentioned your name today,
took me down memory lane,
to a time very much younger,
a time more pure, more sane.
Used in Book”
“#16 Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
“#17 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!”
“#18 Wherever you are, I am there also.
Used in Book”
“#19 I will see you again, but not yet. Not yet.
Used in Book”
“#20 People die only when we forget them. If you can remember me, I will be with you always.
Used in Book”
“#21 I will carry you here in my heart,
You remind me that come what may,
I know the way.
Used in Book”
“#22 There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to hear your voice again. Sometimes I wanna call you, but I know you won’t be there.
Used in Book”
“#23 Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love. It humbles my heart. For you are everywhere.”
“#24 I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. Used in Book”
“#25 When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?”
“#26 To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. Used in book”
“#27 The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.”
“#28 Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.
Used in Book”
“#29 A feeling of sadness and longing that is not akin to pain, and resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles the rain.”
“#30 He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present, than the living man.
Used in book”
“#31 Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.”
“#32 There are these three things that remain faith, hope and love & the greatest of these is love. Always Remembered.”
“#33 The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
Used in Book”
“#34 We know we can not live in the past but the past lives in us.”
“#35 There are two parties to the suffering that death inflicts; and, in the apportionment of this suffering, the survivor takes the brunt.”
War Graves
“#36 As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
Partially in Book”
“#37 We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when. But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day.”
“#38 We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.”
“#39 The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.”
“#40 All we have of freedom, all we use or know - This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.”
“#41 As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
“#42 They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Used in Book”