˙©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Ode To A Cemetery cover

This book is a dreamscape; a confluence of the ephemeral and the visceral – conveying the tranquility, solitude and enchantment that I experienced on my many journeys through Green-Wood Cemetery.

I’ve never really understood the allure of cemeteries or gravestones, but when Bethany Eden Jacobson’s new book, Ode To A Cemetery, published by Hirmer Publishers, came across my desk, I realized that I was looking at familiar territory. The book is a meandering journey through one of the most notable cemeteries in New York: Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where generations of my husband’s family are buried. It’s an unusual place, park-like with paths for wandering and meditating, offering beauty and inspiration. During the pandemic it became a refuge for New Yorkers and as Jacobson states, “a place to find solace and to escape the confinement and isolation of my apartment.” The author discovered a certain magic on her walks, a oasis of calm and beauty, void of morbity and sadnes. Her artistic journey led to learning paper-making. “I wanted to convey the tactility of Green-Wood; including the worn statuary, magnificent trees, changing seasons, and sometime surreal skies of this verdant oasis in Brooklyn. By embedding select images in a textured handmade surface, I hoped to transform the grief, and solemnity of the female statuary.”

Jacobson creates a moving portrait of Green-Wood Cemetery in her color and black and white photographs of century old trees, grand vistas and time worn statuary. Her cinematic approach is a visual meditation on the transience of life and the importance of nature to the human spirit. The book also includes reproductions of her unique artworks on handmade paper inspired by the female Victorian statuary. Throughout the book, Cole Swensen’s poetic words reflect on the imagery, creating a lyrical interplay between image and text.

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Spread from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Spread from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Spread from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Spread from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Spread from Ode To A Cemetery

Bethany Eden Jacobson began her career as a photographer and video artist in the 1980s. Her video installation, Raw Zones, filmed by Babette Mangolte was exhibited at P.S.1, NYC, in 1987. Her video work was exhibited in London, Japan and Canada. Her photographs of Iggy Pop, Wim Wenders, David Wojnarowicz, and Chantal Akerman were published in numerous magazines. Subsequently, Jacobson pursued a career in film; writing and directing projects that were aired on television and exhibited at film festivals, while simultaneously keeping her photography practice active. Her passion for landscape photography and alternative processes intensified in the past five years. In 2021, her photographs were included in numerous exhibits at Photoplace Gallery in Vermont and SE Center for Photography in Greenville, S.C. juried by Elizabeth Avedon, Jeff Curto, Doug Stockdale and Catherine Couturier. She participated in the 2021 and 2022 Julia Cameron Competition and her work was exhibited at the Third Foto Biennale in Barcelona, 2022. “Ode To A Cemetery” was a solo exhibit of photographic work at EV Gallery, July 7-28, 2023. Her first photography book, “Ode To A Cemetery” is being published by Hirmer Verlag in October, 2024. This fall she is exhibiting in a two-person show, “Legendary Brooklyn – Two Perspectives,” at Gallery Onetwentyeight, NYC. She teaches in the film department at Brooklyn College. She is a British/UK dual-national and lives in Brooklyn. 

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, European Beech, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Baby Statuary, Baby Gravestone, and Beehives, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Female Statue and Red Berries, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Woman Walking, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Cherry Blossoms, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Valley Water Reflection, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Hill of Graves, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Angel and Tree in Fog, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, The Catacombs, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Piro Crypt, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Mother and Daughter Statue, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Eliza Jane Memorial, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, The Hand, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Baby, from Ode To A Cemetery

©Bethany Eden Jacobson, Ecstasy, from Ode To A Cemetery