Photos of Suburban Halloween Decorations from the 1980s

by Anika Burgess October 30, 2015

In 1984, Cameron Jamie began to document the elaborate Halloween decorations in his old neighborhood in Los Angeles. Every year since, he has returned to photograph the ghoulish front-yard horror scenes.

His snaps of elaborately dressed houses, shot in bright daylight, highlight an intriguing juxtaposition: a celebration of the macabre within a suburban setting. Plastic skeletons swing from behind white picket fences, rows of tombstones are planted on a neatly trimmed lawn, and a stricken Frankenstein sits immobile on a bamboo patio chair.

Atlas Obscura has picked out some our favorite shots from Jamie’s new book, Front Lawn Funerals and Cemeteries.