FAR is compiling an online photo-journal and data-base of roadside memorial markers, crosses, and memorial displays from around the world, so that the lives represented by these memorials may be honored, and the stories told. If you would like to submit of photo of your loved one's marker or cross, and tell us a bit about him or her, please e-mail us with the info and any photo attachments of the markers and - if you would like - the person. The stories of these precious beings, and how you are living with your grief, could be of great help to many. FAR hopes to expand this work to include cemetery markers and headstones.
Check this space soon for more photos of roadside memorial markers, and the stories of the individuals honored by these markers.
Descansos: Roadside Memorials on the American Highway. "The custom of marking the site of a death on the highway has deep roots in the Hispanic culture of the Southwest, where these memorials are often referred to as Descansos ("resting places"). ...The Descansos photography project began several years ago when I took several photographs of roadside memorials on a driving trip to the Southwest. As I made similar trips in the following years, I began photographing them more systematically, and I eventually collected a large number of images from Midwestern and Southwestern states, particularly Colorado."
Irish Roadside Memorials. "Ireland's Roadside memorials, mostly elaborate plaques and monuments adorned with photos and inscriptions, are among the most sophisticated and most prolific of any country. On this huge website you can examine over 600 shrines and memorials all over Ireland. Constantly being updated, this project tries to give these descansos a world audience, helping make our loved ones universally known, mourned and prayed for."
Roadside Memorials of South Texas. "Roadside Memorials, also referred to as descansos, often dot the traveled roadways across the great state of Texas. Usually in remembrance of a loved one who was killed in an auto accident, roadside memorials take on many forms, but mostly involve the symbol of a cross. In some cases they mark the place where several individual's lives were taken. Over the years of traveling South Texas highways on business, I have seen numerous roadside memorials erected along the major and rural highways with a few within urban areas. I have recently began to photograph them and will post them on this page in an effort to bring them to a wider audience. Hopefully these reminders will make us better drivers and keep the roadways a little safer."