Posted on September 13, 2018
by iamcharlieashcroft
0
http://voyagechicago.com/interview/art-life-charlotte-ashcroft/
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
Art & Life with Charlotte Ashcroft
Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Ashcroft.
Charlotte, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
The unique story of a graveyard photographer? Where do I begin with that one? I wish I could tell you some sort of intricate, fascinating story about how I became what I am today. The truth is that I can’t. I’ve always enjoyed taking photos and that’s been...
The Keepers
A Charlotte Ashcroft Collection
Hauntingly Beautiful Cemetery Photography
Limited Showing
October 31- November 30
City News Cafe
4018 N. Cicero
Chicago, Illinois
CharlieAshcroft.com
Contact: iamcharlieashcroft@gmail.com
@charlie_ashcroft
12.15 Night Market & Exhibition
Hummingbird Studios
737 W. Wrightwood Ave.
Chicago, Illinois
7pm-10pm
A good amount of the photos in this collection are from New Orleans. The city is in my soul, it lives there and therefore is one of my muses.
“When writers come here they walk about smelling everything because New Orleans is, above all, a town where the heady scent of jasmine or sweet olive mingles with the cloying stink of sugar refineries and the musky mud smell of the Mississippi. It's an intoxicating brew of rotting and generating, a feeling of death...
Eternal:
(Adjective) Lasting or existing forever;
without end or beginning.
Graceland Cemetery
4001 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60613
Graceland, a Victorian Era cemetery and the most extravagant cemetery in my home town, Chicago. Finally resting place of the famous and the well-to-do. Located on the north side at the intersection of Irving Park Road and Clark. I'd wager to way that most Chicagoan's know of this place and a good amount of them most likely believe it's haunted. The day of my visit, the weather was lovely. The shadows and light played perfectly with my camera....
WEEPING: (ADJECTIVE)
EXPRESSING GRIEF, SORROW, OR ANY OVERWHELMING EMOTION BY SHEDDING TEARS.
On my recent trip to New Orleans, I fell in love. This was not a normal love by any means. It was more of the obsessive kind. The kind of love that you can’t stop thinking about. I was walking through the Frenchman’s Art Market when I saw her, well actually I saw a photograph of her. I was awestruck. It was love. I had to capture her or at the very least, I had to know where I could find her. I had to witness her glory first hand. It was then that the journey began. A streetcar later and what seemed...
Crestfallen: (adjective)
Dejected; dispirited; discouraged
There is a timeless, weather worn beauty that makes the cemeteries in New Orleans have a magical feel to them. I don't know if this feeling emanates from the palm fronds or the fact that some of the paths are lined with dirt, sand, stones, and seashells. Whatever the reason for this is, it's downright enchanting.
Cypress Grove Cemetery became the first cemetery built to honor New Orleans volunteer firemen and their families. It was made possible in 1838 by New Orleans philanthropist Stephen Henderson whose estate left property...
Melancholy: (noun)
A feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.
On the morning of February 8th and 9th of 2017, I visited Mount Olive Cemetery at 3800 N. Narragansett Ave. in Chicago, Illinois. Mount Olive was established in 1889 for Chicago’s Scandinavian population. At the entrance, I was greeted by a viking water fountain. The plaque on the side says “N. Heldt Henriksen Sculptor” and a year that I believe reads 1906 but this could be wrong because it was a bit hard to read. From what I could find, Niels Heldt Henrikson was the owner of Heldt Henrikson Marble...
PENANCE: (NOUN)
VOLUNTARY SELF-PUNISHMENT INFLECTED AS AN OUTWARD EXPRESSION OF REPENTANCE FOR HAVING DONE WRONG.
Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana.
This lovely creature was hiding among my photographs. Frozen, she eternally awaits absolution. An immortal penitent held not only by stone but by the weight of her sorrow.
New Orleans has long remained fixated on death and its cemeteries.
“There is no architecture in New Orleans, except in the cemeteries. They bury their dead in vaults above ground. These vaults have a resemblance to houses–sometimes to temples; are built of marble,...