October 2025.
New Orleans, Louisiana.

This week, Ritva’s challenge is to reveal street details. She writes, “This week, skip the classic street-portrait approach and zoom in (or step closer) to capture peeling paint on a lamppost. The goal is to reveal the often-hidden, magical world, of the details we never take the time to notice the rhythmic pattern of subway tiles, tire marks on wet asphalt, or the glow of neon bouncing off a puddle. The goal is to reveal the often-hidden, magical world, of the details we never take the time to​ notice anymore.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

For my response, I’m focusing on a microcosm of a larger city—the cemeteries of New Orleans—partly because of our recent tour and partly to honor the Day of the Dead. In many New Orleans’ historic cemeteries, street placards embedded in the ground, like the small placard at the base of the tomb on the right, serve as navigational aids, guiding visitors through the grid-like layout of above-ground tombs. These markers mimic city street signs and help identify sections or blocks, making it easier to locate specific tombs—especially in places like St. Patrick Cemetery No. 2, one of the three cemeteries we toured.

Crossing the street to the Masonic Cemetery, we discovered that various societies once offered burial options for individuals who couldn’t afford private family crypts. The tomb shown here, owned by the Red River Pilots’ Association, is known as a Society Tomb—or Association Tomb. What I noticed about this wall crypt was the ship’s wheel, and I wondered how the spoke had been damaged. At what point did that happen?

High above one tomb, an angel of grief stands in solemn reflection, one hand shielding her gaze as if searching for souls long departed. Beneath her arm, carved flowers bloom—symbols of life persisting amid sorrow. The blossoms speak for the living, those left behind to mourn, remember, and carry on. The flowers, often depicted in a broken chain, reflect the transition from life to death. The theme is carried throughout the cemetery’s tombs.

A marble-draped urn on this tomb is another common symbol of mortality in the cemeteries. The heavy cloth represents the shroud of death, and the broken floral garland looping across the vessel powerfully illustrates the severing of the earthly bond. Yet, the enduring blossoms remain, reflecting the love and memory of those who live on.

I’ll save the details for a future post, but as we walked through one cemetery, we noticed ten new, as yet unused crypts, one of them still open. Our tour guide noted that these family crypts cost approximately $30,000 USD each.

It’s a common belief that there are no in-ground burials in New Orleans cemeteries. That’s not true. Even in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this type of collapse was well known as a risk for in-ground burials in New Orleans. Unlike above-ground tombs built with brick and stucco, an in-ground burial relies on the integrity of the coffin. Once the wooden coffin decomposed, the soil above and around it inevitably settled or collapsed into the cavity below, creating the cave-in. This instability is precisely why above-ground burial became the overwhelming preference in the region.

We saw several graves like this one, framed by concrete forms and, maybe, a fence surrounding a grassy plot. In more than one, some of the remains of the deceased are clearly visible in the dirt. For those who wish to look carefully, near the lower left of the photo is an L-shaped piece of metal. Just to the left is part of a human bone.

That’s all for my response to Ritva’s challenge. Last week, Sofia hosted a journey to ancient sites. Next week, Tina hosts. Follow her site to make sure you don’t miss next week’s challenge, which will be published on November 1 at noon Eastern time. To learn more about how to participate in these challenges, click here.

About the photos: These images were captured with either my Samsung S25 Ultra or my Nikon Z7 II. All were processed in Luminar Neo after basic tweaks in Adobe Lightroom Classic. AI tools were used in some images to remove distractions. For those who like to pixel-peep or check the photo metadata, the images are also available in 2K HD on my Flickr site.

John Steiner