While old cemeteries and their littering of ruins can awaken our nostalgia for an imagined and projected history, they also are unavoidable and not-so-tidy reminders of our own mortality. Certainly time, carried by the passing light of daytime hours, is kinder to older, more honest tombstones than it is to newer, polished iterations—their reflective surfaces and unthinking design attempt to preserve an odd physical presence, a presence that came more naturally to hand-carved letters in limestone.
Notice the crack in this example, which seems in keeping with its ruin.