By Jennifer Russo

Looking for something creepy yet fashionable to wear to your next rendezvous with the nightlife spirits? Look no further than Grave Images, a clothing company started back in 1996, the brainchild of photographer David Polito. David has been fascinated by “the dark side” since he was a child and credits his parents for buying him books about it instead of discouraging his interests. While studying at the New England School of Photography in Boston, he found a way to embrace his love of macabre through art by taking pictures of area gravestones which he thought had some alluring quality.

“I found two graveyards ~ The Granary and King’s Chapel. Both graveyards have lots of stones from before 1700. These gravestones had remarkably dark personifications of death on them…I started to experiment with these images, such as inverting the colors.  This really caused the images to come alive, so to speak,” says David. He decided the best way to truly bring them to life was to silkscreen them onto clothing so that people could wear them.

So what creeps out a man who walks around cemeteries taking pictures for a living? “To me, there is nothing creepier than the real thing ~ On Halloween night 2008 I captured something on film while doing timed exposures at a party in Salem.  In two consecutive shots, there is a smoky, almost electrical looking energy field above a person. I’ve always been a skeptic, if a somewhat hopeful one.  I know too much about photography to look at many of the photos shown to me which claim to be paranormal and not start asking questions about the shutter speed, light sources, etc. and I can explain why strange things appeared.  To quote Sherlock Holmes, ‘Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’  I could find no logical explanation for these two images.”

It may seem like an oxymoron, but David tells us that when choosing a deathly image to transfer to the Grave Images fashion line, one of the criteria is that it’s an image that is “alive with energy” and immediately elicits a response. “Historically, our best seller is the design inspired by the William Hutson Gravestone,” says David.  “There’s a particularly graphic depiction of death in the form of a winged skull with the inscription ‘Memento Te Esse Mortalum’ (Remember you are Mortal).  This gravestone is from 1680, making it the oldest one we’ve ever found with artistic carving on it.” Though he has not yet done a shoot at Spider Gates here in Worcester, one can only images the images he’ll capture in the [allegedly] haunted cemetery.

David says he believes in focusing on the commitment he has made to his team and customers. Aside from their standard catalogue of Tshirts, tanks, and hoodies (and even some goblets0, Grave Images also does custom work. “It has become a big part of our business.  We design work for some customers and sometimes print designs they had been using other printers for.  We have very solid printers and very fast designers.  Basically, any company or shop can hire us to make their shirts for them,” David shares.

The future for Grave Images is anything but…grave. Right now they are very excited about their new jewelry line, which features a variety of Tibetan skull beads, hand carved bone pendants, and bronze rings.

Check out the Grave Images on-line store, with fashions modeled by goth supermodel Donna Ricci, at www.graveimages.com,. Also keep Grave Images on your radar because David hopes to soon put together a haunted attraction that will scare you…to death.