PREVIEW

'The Lake View Cemetery: Photographs from Cleveland's Historic Landmark' and art show

What: New 226-page book by photographer Barney Taxel, with text by Laura Taxel (University of Akron Press, $62.95).

Art show: Twenty photographs from the book will be up in the Lake View Cemetery Community Mausoleum (by the Mayfield Road entrance) through Tuesday, Nov. 25. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Admission is free.

To purchase the book: Available at local book stores, Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and the Lake View Cemetery office and giftshop. Also through the University of Akron Press.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Barney Taxel is not a huge fan of cemeteries.

But the Cleveland photographer is a huge fan of Lake View Cemetery. And that's a very good thing – for Clevelanders, and himself.

Taxel has spent the last 14 years exploring and documenting the 285-acre, 145-year-old cemetery on the border of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland – and its famous residents.

"I really can't explain that much about the appeal of cemeteries in general," says Taxel, whose previous books include "Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens" and "Cleveland's West Side Market: 100 Years and Still Cooking."

"But Lake View has an appeal that goes beyond categories. It's very inviting. I feel my humanness there and a sense of life – even though the primary purpose of the founders was to have a place for people to be laid to rest.

"But their secondary missions were just as strong – to have a place where people can go for contemplation and a sense of community, to be together."

Taxel had visited Lake View many times before he started his book project, "The Lake View Cemetery: Photographs from Cleveland's Historic Landmark," released this week from the University of Akron Press. But he really began to spend time there in earnest in 2000, when the idea for the book was hatched.

"It was hard to believe there had never been a photography study about Lake View," he says. "There were several literary works, but it was astounding to me nobody had done a photographic study."

When Taxel approached the managers of Lake View, they were as enthused as he was, giving him full access to all areas and arranging access to the private family mausoleums, such as the Wade Memorial Chapel with its Tiffany windows.

Mostly, though, Taxel just wandered and explored – with no set goal or map in hand to guide him.

"I was a free spirit there," he says. "I went where I felt attracted to going – different times of year, different times of day, getting different things in relation to the light and nature and time. It was a totally visual experience."

Often he went on his own, sometimes with an assistant. Usually without additional lights, but sometimes using a generator to provide more illumination, as in the mausoleums.

Later, when author Laura Taxel, his wife and frequent collaborator, came on board in 2011-12 to research and write the text, he began to focus on more specific goals for the book.

The result is a poetic and powerful look at the sprawling cemetery that is home to many of Cleveland's most famous residents, from John D. Rockefeller and President James A. Garfield to slain baseball player Ray Chapman and Cleveland Clinic co-founder George Washington Crile.

The beauty of Taxel's book is that he doesn't just focus on the famous names and the big monuments. He includes nature scenes and monument scenes and mourning scenes in the newer parts of the cemetery, along with details of broken graves and fresh flowers and mosaics and waterfalls.

And yes, the mausoleums with their statues and Tiffany windows are in there, too. A map included in the back provides locators to the photographed areas.

"The time I spent in the family mausoleums was a very special time to me," says the photographer. "I felt a closeness to [the dead] and their families."

Taxel said he learned something new every day of the 14 years he visited Lake View – but mostly he learned what a special place it is.

"What's most amazing is they planned this more than 150 years ago," he says, "and opened 145 years ago – and they have succeeded over all this time in their mission."