John Cate Photography

In many places around the world, cemeteries are not places to stow and forget the dead, but integral part of the city's fabric and destinations in and of themselves. But when you visit the Recoleto in Buenos Aires or Pere Lachaise in Paris, you are reminded of the ultimate futility inherent in the effort to perpetuate life through memory. Rusted and crumbling memorials, once grand and glorious palaces of the dead, are poignant reminders that once you are gone, well, you are gone. One lesson, perhaps, is to put your efforts into making your life memorable while you still have it. These pictures are in that way a reminder to make the most of each day. But another lesson is that the persistence of life qua life -- that is, not individual life -- is demonstrated by the many graves overrun with weeds, plants and spider webs.