Lonely Planet community blog

If you believe everything you see in the movies, all cemeteries should be dark, eerie places accessed by rusty iron gates, filled with crumbling macabre headstones, and with a mysterious low-lying fog of uncertain origin. Ominous shapes should be lurking in the darkness, twigs should snap loudly, and no cemetery is complete without the startling flutter of bat wings.

Back in the real world, no two cemeteries are alike, and spooky is the exception rather than the rule. Many travellers, particularly those with an interest in history, art, and landscape architecture find themselves drawn to graveyards to capture the beauty of the grounds and the ancient crypts, read the inscriptions, and seek out the graves of famous historical figures, and something about cemeteries makes them almost irresistible to photgraphers.

For this contest, we want to see your very best cemetery photo. Think creatively – it doesn’t have to come from a Western-style cemetery: Egyptian tombs, Viking burial mounds, and the azalea you buried your pet goldfish under are perfectly acceptable. Your photos can be eerie, beautiful, shocking, bleak, funny, bizarre, uplifting – it’s entirely up to you.

The Contest

How to enter:

1. Go to the Cemeteries Around the World Group
2. Sign in (or register with LonelyPlanet.com if you haven’t already done so), and join the group to add a photo
3. Click “Add a photo” and upload your photo with a brief caption with location and any background info. Images must be <10MB and a .jpg, .gif, or .png. (800 x 600 px is sufficient for judging and fast to upload).

Individuals may enter up to 3 photos. The winner will be chosen by a panel of Lonely Planet judges who will be looking for the most striking and unique photograph. The contest winner will receive a copy of Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Photography.

Contest ends Saturday October 31 at midnight GMT, and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter. Your photo must be yours and not infringe on any rights of third parties and must abide by the community guidelines (no offensive materials). Lonely Planet respects the privacy of others, and your personal information will only be used to tell you if you’ve won (see our privacy policy).

If you don’t want to enter the contest, but you like one or more of the photos, let the photographer know by commenting on their photo!

[Photos: Spooky Bunhill Fields headstone (London) by Andy Murdock; Angel statue atop family tomb (Isla Mujeres) by aimbug]

Hide 7 comments

1. October 22, 2009 elizabeth266 Report this comment

   I have a cemetary by my house. It doesn’t have many pretty stones though….

2. October 23, 2009 raimybird Report this comment

   I’m sure these entries are going to be awesome! I was just researching cemeteries from around the world for a blog post at NileGuide. If anyone needs a little inspiration you should check it out!
   http://blog.nileguide.com/2009/10/22/10-creepiest-cemeteries/

3. October 23, 2009 macsenjz Report this comment

   the author is right, not all cemeteries are dark and foreboding, just check out west minister abbey and you’d know.

4. October 26, 2009 8edward7 Report this comment

   New Orleans has some amazing cemeteries.

5. October 27, 2009 newislander Report this comment

   What are you going to do with the photos? Do we get to keep licensing rights etc? I would like to enter but don’t want to hand over my picture for commerical use beyond this competition.

6. October 27, 2009 exodustravels Report this comment

   What an interesting subject matter.. Obviously, being from Exodus, I love photography and look forward to seeing the entries. Totally agree that cementries don’t have to be doom and gloom, they can be very peaceful, uplifting places.

7. October 28, 2009 Andy Murdock Report this comment

   Hi newislander – The only plans at the moment are for the pictures to live on this group (which will hopefully persist beyond the competition), and we’ll feature the winner and some of our favorites in an upcoming blog post. While the website terms do give Lonely Planet the right to reuse the photos, in practice we do not reuse user-generated content without getting your consent first (e.g. we always ask before we use Thorn Tree content in guidebooks, and users will occasionally opt out – same thing applies here).