Controversial Locations - Where do YOU draw the line?

I wouldn't use a graveyard with my dolls, not because it's 'disrespectful' which I don't believe it is anyway, but because they're so widely out of scale to the doll! I'd try and construct my own to-scale one or something.

If I for some reason did decide to take pictures with dolls there though, I wouldn't pick newer gravestones, i'd pick the area of the graveyard where the gravestones are 100+ years old, because I prefer that old weathered look and I love the styles of those periods long gone. Modern graves just don't appeal to me aesthetic-wise. It's unlikely any family would come to visit these, and if they did it's likely to be tracing family roots than for sentimental reasons. I wouldn't put them in sexual positions or anything like that because it's really not my style. I don't really understand how just quietly taking photos, creating art, can be considered disrespectful. Even if you're shouting and drinking, it's disrespectful to do that ANYWHERE (except in the privacy of your own home as long as you're not disturbing neighbours, or at a club or something like that), it's not just graveyards.

 

I think it's a bit selfish to think of your grave plot as something you can control even after you're dead. Using that area for photographs isn't inherently disrespectful. Vandalism is, so that might be where I draw the line. If you're photographing your doll spray paint on graves, you've gone too far.

 

This very well sums up what I was thinking, and in much better words than I am able to speak in the evening. >_< I keep deleting what I type because it isn't coming out right.

 

As far as graves go...Well, it's just a grave. I'm not speaking down to any religion, being a very religious person myself, but once they're dead, they aren't here. They are just the same decaying matter as the rest of the Earth. It's a plot of land. And they are meant to be visited and enjoyed for their beauty. Therefore, they are able to be used by other artists.

 

hmmm.. personally i would love for people to use my grave for BJD activities hahaha
mabye i'll put a little sign on it " BJD photographers welcome" teehee ;D
but yeah, honestly i think it its ok to take photos wherever you want, as long as you dont have the dolls in disrepsteful positions ( lying naked across a gravestone or whatever 0__0 ) XDD

 

I disagree with this statement. I don't treat people's gravestones like it was put in place for someone/me to photograph it.. I'm very respectable when it comes to graveyards, I talk to them, I let them know what I'm doing and I apologize for walking over them/disturbing them..

I agree with the 'no place is inappropriate'... That being said, I'm not going to waltz into someones house while they're in the bathroom and start snapping pictures of my dolls.. Thats.. just not cool. Honestly, It just doesn't matter to me where I want to take a picture. If someone asks me to leave, well.. sure I guess.. but I don't have to, right? No one has to do anything someone else tells you to do.

 

Well, I have already taken photographs of graveyards themselves (without dolls), because they are often very peaceful and beautiful places. And they are very different from country to country, and I like to document this with my pictures.

But now to the question of taking pictures of my dolls on a tombstone, I don't know. I mean, there are people wanting a picture of themselves besides Jim Morrison's tomb...

I guess it depends on cultural backgrounds. In Mexico, families go for picnics in graveyards on the day of the dead, and they celebrate the memory of their dear beloved ones in a festive way.

Using tombs as props might also be a way to acknoledge their value... with respect to the dead below.

 

There are, yes - and a great many of them deface his tomb whilst they're there with scrawled graffiti. So I wouldn't blame anyone for being suspicious of photographer's motives in a graveyard, particularly in Pere Lachaise!

I enjoy taking photos of tombs myself; there are several old tombs in the graveyard of my local church that are actually Grade II listed and are the subject of preservation orders due to the uniqueness of their design and construction, and we actually get tourist coming to visit just to see the tombs. But the descendants of those interred within those tombs are, in many cases, still alive; the graveyard - despite being 900 years old in parts - is still a site of active and recent burial, and you'll see the same family names cropping up on gravestones spanning periods of several hundred years right up to the present. So even if I decided to pose a doll beside one of the older tombs, I could still be annoying a living relative of the deceased.

That's a frequent risk in most church graveyards here in the UK; a grave might be 500 years old but the family may still be living locally and just buried their grandmother - the great-great-great-etc granddaughter of the person interred in that ancient tomb - right next to it yesterday and will take a very dim view of you disturbing the repose of either grandmother or her however-many-greats grandfather.

There's less risk in a municipal cemetery, but most of those only date back a little over 150 years at most, having been instituted by the Victorians when they passed the Burial Act of 1857, so there could well be living relatives that tend the graves. You could probably get away with it somewhere like Highgate Cemetery or Kensal Green, where you regularly get Goths draping themselves over tombstones and posing for photos though. If you see people tending graves and laying flowers in a graveyard however, I'd think it would be viewed as highly inappropriate to set your doll up against someone's tomb or grave and just start snapping away. Regardless of your own views on what is or isn't art, your wishes do not trump over the feelings and wishes of mourners and relatives.

 

While that is true I really don't think many people would be offended. Of course that could be different in the UK. I still say if you are respectful it shouldn't matter. If someone asks you to stop of course you stop. So long as you change nothing and break nothing I think it's fine. That's just me though

 

Hm, I have a divided opinion. I would never take pictures at a graveyard, but I like most of the pictures that are taken there... strange^^

I think the "best graves" for taking pictures are the Jewish ones here in Germany. (Or other, really old ones)
1. they are really old (they stay forever) no one comes to visit the grave -> no one might get upset
2. the Hebrew on it looks really cool
BUT you can't go to a Jewish cemetery to place a doll at a grave for taking pictures, it is a matter of respect!

 

Personally, the only thing that would stop me from going to a graveyard for a photoshoot would be the fact there ARE people who would get offended by it.
Just because I don't personally care if someone used one of my relatives' graves as a backdrop (Certainly I would ask them to explain themselves first lol.), doesn't mean someone else would take offense. :P I wouldn't want to hurt someone easily offended like that.

 

I just couldn't believe that there would be very many that would be offended. I guess I'm wrong though. Maybe the best thing then is to use your own relatives graves if you want to do a photo shoot. Make sure to ask first though You might ask people you know. I wouldn't want to offend people either.

 

I think ... if someone saw you taking pictures/saw a picture of a relatives grave, the least they would say would be something like "Hey!? What do you think you're doing?" Which... for me would be enough to just give up on the idea.
I'm just not very confrontational, and having to explain yourself would be a burden. x__x;
They could either think something of "It's fine as long as you don't show the name." or whatever. Or they could take the full offense and feel you're disrespecting their dead, which could get nasty. D: (For one, I KNOW my mother would not like her mother's grave used as a "prop".)

 

That's why I said ask first I get what you mean though. I can't imagine any of my relatives telling me no. Asking to edit out the name maybe. I guess we are just more apathetic than most. Maybe photoshop is a good answer as well. It gets easier to use all the time.

The original poster did ask for other places that would be taboo. I wonder what are other places people would be offened if I went to take photos. In someone's yard/home without asking is all I can think of.

 

Taking the pictures on someone's grave, to me, only feels disrespectful if it's not someone you know. That person could have been terrified of dolls or just didn't want it. The only time I've EVER done photography in a graveyard was because it was my cousin's grave, and he adored my small dolls.

 

You know, my two cents on this one....

I took a digital photography class. My final project I decided was going to be on gravestones and different objects in graveyards. I easily went to 5-6 graveyards to snap shots. In the end it came down to one picture.

I did not step on any graves, I treated the whole experience with respect and dignity for those under me. I have had no complaints, was even complimented on my work.

In recent years, I've seen more and more photography work in graveyards, done to capture the beautiful work captured on the gravestones and statues. The work I've seen is amazing quality, praised all around...

So why would that change if there was a doll in the picture? I think as long as it's done with the right respect, it comes off as art.

 

Most people have been interested, supportive, and kind to me when I was taking pictures in the cemetery...of course they also noted I came with flowers for thanks and cleaned up litter while I was there...I've never had anyone be critical or suspicious of me. Besides, the more constructive, positive activity in a cemetery the less likely you'll find criminal or dangerous activity occurring there. And awesome for doing your project on graveyards, Wishofnight.

In my opinion, there's no difference between jogging in a cemetery and photographing it.

 

I agree. In most of California's urban cemeteries, they're used as particularly peaceful public parks. My 18th century roleplay costuming group frequently had picnics within one particularly beautiful older cemetery. We would choose an area that was quite old, so as to ensure that we weren't encroaching on burial or mourning services, and made sure to talk to the folks buried within the area we were picnicing. In our eyes, we were providing entertainment for very bored dead souls... and the cemetery caretakers who welcomed us. And the joggers and visitors and, yes, even relatives, who complimented us and asked if they might join.

There's so much beauty in cemeteries, and so few people who object, that I think it is entirely acceptable to photograph there, so long as it's respectful.

It seems to me as if the concern is that photographing dolls is frivolous, so therefore, it's not acceptable in a place of reverence. But couldn't one also make the case that, say, setting up an easel and painting the view is also frivolous? Or taking a stroll and laughing with a friend? Cannot one be fun and respectful at the same time, appreciating the people within for the beauty their tombstones and memory provide?

 

My only real concern in Cemetery photography isn't in the photography itself, but in the way that the stones are treated while the photographer is there. I'm a taphophile, in addition to being a doll collector, and in the summer months I am frequently found in the local cemeteries, camera in hand, to take photos of interesting stones.

My only rule, ever, is don't touch. My favourite stones have always been the really old ones and there is nothing that makes me cringe more than seeing photography in which people or items (dolls included) have been draped across the stones.

Old stones can be exceptionally fragile. Even if they look very stable on the outside, the inside of the stone could be crumbling and ready to break.

Please be very careful when you're in cemeteries, photography or not. That's someone's family history and it's an awful, irreplaceable loss if the stone is damaged.