Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 21 to 29 of 29

Thread: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

  1. #21
    cjbecker's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    IN, USA
    Posts
    90

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    If images are the thing that people recognize me for when I die, my life was a failure.

  2. #22
    Moderator
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    Posts
    5,614

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    I frankly don't care. The funeral isn't for me--it's part of the process of those who care about me who are left behind. (I'm sticking with the assumption that the population of those who care about me is nonzero.) If showing my pictures helps them, then fine. If not, that's fine, too. Giving them away? Whatever. Selling them? Even better.

    I hope there will be other things to talk about during the eulogy, and I hope those things are about the people doing the talking, but that won't be my choice.

    I recently attended a funeral for the son of a friend. His son had died of lymphoma at age 21. Our friend's eulogy was a trip through a book he'd bought when his son was born--a father-son how-to--with a rule for fathers to apply to raising their sons on every page. He took us through the pages with advice he'd not followed, celebrating the way his son overcame his father's lapses. And then he took us through the pages with the advice he'd followed, celebrating the way his son humbled him even when he thought he was doing the right thing. Finally, he read to us the last page: "And finally, you must let him go." His final words, "I guess I've failed at that one, too." My wife reached for the box of Kleenex, but she had to get it away from me first. It was obviously deeply moving, but it was also for our friend, not for his son.

    Funerals are for the living. Let them decide how to conduct them.

    My only rule for my own funeral is: No open casket. Cremation--whatever. But the world does not need to see my dead body, however dolled up with wax and spray paint and fancy duds.

    Rick "as I used to say in San Antonio, it don't make no le hace" Denney

  3. #23

    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    South Texas
    Posts
    1,837

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    Wow, Rick, a heart-breaking eulogy for sure. I think I'd be blubbering like a baby...

  4. #24
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Seattle, Wash.
    Posts
    2,929

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    Quote Originally Posted by E. von Hoegh View Post
    ...Heroique, you certainly come up with some odd questions...
    I plead guilty – there’s nothing like contemplating one’s own death to enliven our thoughts about LF prints. As we know, all LF photographers must meet the same tragic end, so it’s interesting to hear how our prints might ennoble this fate w/ a bit of gleam, vision, and light…

  5. #25
    おせわに なります! Andrew O'Neill's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Coquitlam, BC, Canada, eh!
    Posts
    5,136

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    A question that concerns me more is what should happen to all my prints and negs after I'm gone? Should I burn all my negs like Brett Weston did to save someone a lot of hassle? Or should I stick them all in a time capsule and bury them out the the back 40 to be found some day in the future?

  6. #26

    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    3,142

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew O'Neill View Post
    A question that concerns me more is what should happen to all my prints and negs after I'm gone? Should I burn all my negs like Brett Weston did to save someone a lot of hassle? Or should I stick them all in a time capsule and bury them out the the back 40 to be found some day in the future?
    Make very clear provision in your will how you want them disposed. This goes for any material goods you value.
    One man's Mede is another man's Persian.

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    99

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    My prints have "decorated" a number of funerals and visitations--not my own, yet. One example: Ten years ago I did a photo project where I photographed my wife's grandparents. They had lived in the same house for 60 years, raised 7 children there. They moved to a retirement home and sold the house and held an auction for all house hold items. I photographed the town, the house and the grandparents. I gave sets of the prints to them and their children for Christmas one year (17 photos each). My wife's grandfather died two years after moving out of the house. I was surprised when I went to the funeral to find the entire set on display. The photo which got the most comments was a five generation photo--grandfather holding his great, great grandchild.

  8. #28

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
    As we know, all LF photographers must meet the same tragic end…
    That does it ! I'm moving to Medium Format !

  9. #29
    Format Omnivore Brian C. Miller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 1999
    Location
    Everett, WA
    Posts
    2,997

    Re: Will photos decorate your funeral, memorial, or wake?

    Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
    As we know, all LF photographers must meet the same tragic end…
    Quote Originally Posted by danno@cnwl.igs View Post
    That does it ! I'm moving to Medium Format !
    So you won't die from being crushed underneath a massive 60ft by 45ft "mine is ever so seriously bigger than yours" mega-ultra-giga-I-don't-have-a-life-large-format camera that you tried backpacking while climbing sheer mountain sides in an ice hurricane. And as you fall, you'll think, "Gee whiz, I should have listened to Brian and not brought 7,498 different lenses with me! All that glass and brass was so heavy..."

    Enjoy your 8oz. Holga.

    Me? I plan to die out in the woods so nobody knows if I'm photographing or selling prints by the side of the road. Immortality through quantum uncertainty.
    "It's the way to educate your eyes. Stare. Pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." - Walker Evans

Similar Threads

  1. Per Volquartz memorial?
    By Joseph Dickerson in forum Resources
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 22-Oct-2011, 08:52
  2. Memorial
    By Keith Cocker in forum Image Sharing (LF) & Discussion
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 25-Jul-2010, 10:40
  3. New book by Chris Jordan - In Katrina's Wake
    By tim atherton in forum Announcements
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 11-Aug-2006, 10:01

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •