Photography and Death

by Audrey Linkman

The idea of photographing the dead is as old as photography itself. For the most part, early death photographs were commissioned or taken by relatives of the deceased and preserved in the home as part of the family collection. Once thought inappropriate and macabre, today these photographs are considered to have a beneficial role in bereavement therapy.   Photography and Death reveals the beauty and significance of such images, formerly dismissed as disturbing or grotesque, and places them within the context of changing cultural attitudes towards death and loss. Excluding images of death through war, violence, or natural disasters, Audrey Linkman concentrates on photographs of natural deaths within the family. She identifies the range of death-related photographs that have been produced in both Europe and North America since the 1840s and charts changes in their treatment through the decades. Photography and Death will interest photo, art, and social historians and practitioners in the field of bereavement therapy, as well as those who wish to better understand the images of long-lost ancestors who gaze back from the pages of family albums.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

214 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2011

Reviews

[Melissa Dally · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty fascinating. It goes through history and discusses in great detail the relationship between death and photography throughout the years. I learned a lot of cool stuff I didn't know and saw a lot of postmortem photographs I hadn't previously seen.

My one complaint, the one thing that stops this from being a 5 star book is that there are many pictures referenced that I would have liked to see, but instead I had to look them up on the internet. I mean, it's easy enough to do that, but I would have liked to have them handy.

[GlenK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This well-done overview concentrates to a large extent on memorial (also known as post-mortem or last memory) photography from the mid-1800s to the present. It also looks - through the context of photography - at changing death and funeral customs and attitudes (for example, the declining role of the home and the family). Included with the text are just over 100 images, some of which could be considered disturbing.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting and useful survey, however I wished that not only more non-Western examples would have been included but also other photographic topics that deal with death, e.g. war photography, would have at least been mentioned.