Subject: Question for fine art pros. .a little off beat

Hello all: This is going to sound a bit strange, and I'll tell you up front that the only connection this has to medium/large format is that I plan to shoot the project with my Crown Graphic. Basically , I'm embarking on a pretty involved body of photographic work related to the rituals and styling of death and d ying. Specifically, my work will focus on the preparation of the deceased for viewing by the family - what it mean s, how it's done, how it's perceived and what the whole process does to our understanding of the body, the soul and all that esoteric stuff)) In order to get myself in the right frame of mind, and for background research , I'd like to observe a mortician making up a person for the viewing. I know it would be a lot to ask to phot ograph this, so I'm not even going to attempt it. I would appreciate, however, any suggestions on how to respectf ully approach someone in the industry. Is there anyone here who has experience getting themselves into t raditionally secretive places in order to observe a process most of us never see? I have no interest in ghoulishly exploiting someone else's grief; I think this kind of first-hand observation will be important for my mindset as I figure out what this project will ultimately look like. The final product is not going to be a series of corp se shots - I'm not envisioning anything that literal. Still, I think I need to immerse myself in this cabalistic ri tual to get the most out of this project. Any advice?