| My personal theory is that these photographs follow in the tradition of creating death masks to preserve memories or create painted portraits.
And everyone is different, I guess. I myself am quite content to not have seen my dad (or have a photograph of him) after he died. I’d rather have a living picture of him in my heart.
Klaus
I believe that part of the reason may
have been to ease the grieving of relatives who could not attend
the burial. During the Civil War, bodies often could not be
transported back to the soldier's hometown - unless the family
paid for it.
When my aunt passed away in Florida in 1997, my grandmother (my
aunt's mother) was 97 and could not make the trip from NE PA to
FL. Since she could not be there, she wanted me to take a photo
of my aunt in the casket. It did ease bring her a great deal of
comfort.
When my grandfather passed away in 1979, I was in California on
vacation with my mother, sister and brother. The funeral was in
NE PA. I could not attend, but no one shot pics for us. There
was no closure for me until I attended a Memorial Day service in
the Veteran's section of the cemetery he was buried in - the
services took place right at his gravesite which was next to the
US flag.
Since then, most of my relatives have been cremated since they
often died far from their cemetery plot is located. With the
current state of airline transportation, it just makes sense to be
cremated since you couldn't afford to transport a casket via
airline and hearse and then hire another funeral home.
Chris Telesca
On 5/1/14, 10:22 AM, Lea Murphy wrote:
When my brother drowned my dad asked that I photograph
him in his casket. I was exceptionally uncomfortable with it for a
vast array of reasons (not the least of which was that my brother
and I were very close and I was grieving deeply) and originally
said no, I didn't think I could do it.
Dad then told me that the family had photographs of their
deceased going all the way back to the dawn of
photography…grandparents, great grandparents, etc.
Knowing that by taking the images I would be adding to the
history of our family, I agreed.
They aren't photographs that I look at very often but I am
glad I have them.
Mostly, I'm glad I it this for my dad.
Lea
On May 1, 2014, at 9:07 AM, John Palcewski wrote:
Photographer in India earns living taking pictures of
the dead minutes before they’re cremated "Shankar Jha earns about $500 a month capturing
photos of recently deceased for grieving families in
Varanasi, in northern India. ‘Initially I felt awkward
doing this job but now I've got used to it it doesn't
feel bad anymore.’ " Only in the New York Daily News!
http://nydn.us/1u8VOgk
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