It's still popular in the Upper Midwest isn't it?
It's still popular in the Upper Midwest isn't it?
Reminds me of the motion picture, "The Loved One".
Don Bryant
HI all;
I'm an active funeral director, family business, in my 25th "official" year (been working for my dad since age of 12)
Pictures such as this are very, very common. I used to see it mostly with people from Europe now living here in Canada (I am in SW Ontario), for the simple reason they would send pictures home to relatives in Europe who could not make the funeral. The main difference, as I saw it, is they would photograph everything - the casket, the visitation, friends at visitation, the service, the burial, etc, etc. I've seen everything form simple point and shoot 35mm disposables used to people hiring professional photographers, usually with MF gear.
Today it seems everybody is doing it in one way or another. A lot of families have relatives all over the place - moving to new jobs, etc, and getting time off work seems more problematic today than in the past for many people, travel seems more of a hassle, so I see more and more photography of all kinds. The explosion of cheap, decent quality digital cameras, camera phones, etc, you just see more and more people taking pictures.
So my point of view is, whatever the custom / tradition was in the past, today, it si becoming more and more common place.
joe
eta gosha maaba, aaniish gaa zhiwebiziyin ?
It would get a tad crowded, but that's another reason to shoot LF. It will only push us toward longer and longer lenses.Originally Posted by John Kasaian
Hmmmm...what if the act of making a photograph actually does steal the soul of the subject? Wouldn't it get a bit crowded in your camera after awhile?Then again if the souls already moved on I guess it wouldn't be an issue.
I smell a potential doctorial thesis here!
So thats what those 24" Artars are for!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
That, and as a long-range non-ballistic anti-ant weapon.So thats what those 24" Artars are for!
When I was a kid, many long years ago, a friend's father was a professional photographer who did such work after hours in a funeral home. He told of focusing the image on the ground glass and then re-positioning the photoflood lights a bit closer to the subject. As he was doing a final focus check, the image began to move out of focus and, to his horror, he realized the corpse was beginning to sit up in its casket. After he regained his composure and dried whatever had to be dried, he realized that the heat of the lamps must have been causing muscle contraction.
At least, that's the story he used to tell us klids. <g>
Hmmm, Michael, if you are into this things, you better look up this link. Brr!
Marko
What does the block of text below the photo series say?
Why would anyone want a photo of a dead relative??
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