Headstone Hunter Shares the Beautiful Side of Cemeteries

Headstone Hunter, Jeane Trend-Hill, is fascinated with cemeteries.

Jeane Trend-Hill is known as the Headstone Hunter in the U.K. She has been obsessed with death since childhood. While mourners stood over graves, Trend-Hill wandered off to see the  statues of angels, crosses and doves. After she lost both parents by the age of 20, her destiny became clear. Death would become her life.

Photo Credit: Jeane Trend-Hill

An obsession with the occult spurred Jeane’s artistic talents. Her extensive resume reeks of death: cemetery historian, monument restoration, graveyard photography, paranormal investigation, and doctor of mortuary science. Trend-Hill has authored several books on the topic. “The Lost Language of Cemeteries” is an alphabetical guide to gravestone symbols. Her books “Silent Cities” and “The Best of Silent Cities” feature interesting and unusual photographs of graveyard monuments. Trend-Hill’s most recent book, “Clad Designer One Foot In The Grave,” highlights some funny and spooky anecdotal stories.

Jeane defends her unusual passions in a recent DailyMail.com article: “Some people seem to find what I do morbid, but others find it fascinating; by photographing monuments and writing about cemeteries, I’m giving them a glimpse to the other side but in a good way, not a scary one.”

Jeane takes her obsession to a whole new level. She has been photographed in Victorian costumes while tending to gravesites. She has amassed several symbol-laden tattoos reminiscent of some of her favorite headstones. And now, mourners seek out her guidance on tattoos to honor someone dearly departed, so you can add “advisor of memorial tattoos” to her ghastly resume.

Photo Credit: Jeane Trend-Hill

Although funeral hopping is not a common pastime for most, this headstone hunter has also become a regular attender of funerals. Jeane estimates her attendance at over 200 of them, mostly for strangers. Even grave diggers at her favorite haunts invite Jeane to attend a burial. Though some have laughingly dubbed Jeane the “rent-a-mourner,” she says it is no joke to be present to honor someone’s death. In a recent interview for the New York Post, Jeane reflected, “I realized that everyone has a story to tell, everyone has lived a life and should have someone around to remember them when they die.”

Photo Credit: Jeane Trend-Hill

You can learn more about Jeane’s death-oriented escapades and enjoy her extensive collection of headstone and memorial photos on facebook and twitter.