Gone But Not Forgotten

P.O.V... Gone But Not Forgotten - Memorial photographs recall a time when death played a more visible role in day-to-day life and provide context to reflect on current attitudes about death in American society. "...Postmortem photography, photographing a deceased person, was a common practice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These photographs were often the only ones taken of their subjects and much pride and artistry went into them. It is astounding that although postmortem photographs make up the largest group of nineteenth-century American genre photographs, they are largely unseen, and unknown. Today we struggle to avoid the topic of death; as a result we have closed the door on those images, which reflect an American culture in which death and mourning played a visible and active part." From A Family Undertaking - a film by Elizabeth Westrate.