I recently read a BBC News post about post-death photography. (That piece can be found here, complete with photos.) The piece got me thinking about all kinds of so-called “death photographs.” The New York Times did a piece about such photos, along with their elaborate staging (found here). I found a reference to a Puerto Rican gangster’s funeral here, as well as an ABC News story about the practice of staged death scenes here.
This sort of stuff really boggles my mind. I’ve heard of photos being taken with the dead at funerals, and that sort of gives me the heebies. Factor in that I’ve heard tell of such occurrences at funerals of my own relatives and it all becomes a little too close to home. I mean – I know I’m a bit touched in the head, but dang! If that sideshow freak shit is spread out across the branches of my family tree, I may be more tweaked than I know. And that ain’t good, y’all. (By the way – I don’t have a link to a reference photo for this, as I’d have to go through the photo albums of distant relatives to obtain an example, and that’s something I steadfastly refuse to do. Suffice it to say, at least one of my second cousins will need copious therapy to deal with all the photos of her as a baby in the coffin with her deceased mother. Oh yeah. That shit actually went down.)
And now I’m officially closing my book on this subject, as I just did a search for “babies in coffins” and I clearly went too far. I think I’m gonna have a stiff drink and do a jerking dance to remind myself just how very alive I am. Hallelujah to that.