Recoleta Cemetery

Buenos Aires, known as the "Paris of South America," is a modern city. Being the hub of commerce and a globally renowned soccer team, Buenos Aires sits up there with some of the most progressive countries in the world. What separates this city from the others is it's death grip on tradition. I mean death grip in a literal sense.

Stone Tomb

One of Buenos Aires' neighborhoods, Recoleta, is considered one of the wealthiest areas in the Capital. For many years this neighborhood has been home to some of the wealthiest families of "old money." Fitting then that a walled off part of the city in this neighborhood is reserved real estate for the dead.

Split Path Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta Cemetery holds the crypts of the rich and famous, from political leaders, to war heroes, to doctors and philanthropists. Photographing the crypts, I wanted to capture the morbid beauty of the crypts and the atmosphere of the cemetery itself.

Patriotic Tomb

Stone Angel

Beautifully carved statues and angels adorn these resting places, but along with the beauty and intricacy of these crypts comes a somewhat ominous feeling. Unfortunately, some of the crypts had been robbed or left in disrepair, and a sense of uneasiness has always walked hand in hand with disturbing the dead. Each crypt is different, and is portrayed to display the personality of the deceased.

Aged Crypts

Though I was walking among the dead, the haunting thrum that the crypts sang had me questioning if the cemetery itself wasn't a living, breathing thing.

Janie Barber is the Fall 2015 MOJO Photographer in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is currently a Sophomore at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

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