We need to remember that death and life are partners, each providing a context for the other.   To understand death, a person must try to understand the purpose of life and the relationship between life and death. Life is a sacred journey which includes death.  The Christian mystic Simone Weil wrote, “[Death] is the instant when, for an infinitesimal fraction of time, pure truth, naked, certain, and eternal enters the soul.”   In other words, the moment of death is a “thin” moment in time.  It is a moment when one is between this life and the next, a moment when one moves more fully into the Mystery, naked of all pretense.

“The process of dying involves both the body and soul in the greatest transition we are ever called to make.”~ Megory Anderson ~ excerpt from  Sacred Dying: Creating Rituals for Embracing the End of Life

 German photographer, Walter Schels,and journalist, Beate LaKotta collaborated on a project entitled “Life Before Death.”  Together the duo asked  people who were very close to death  if they could go with them during their last weeks and days. The result is a series of insightful descriptions and photographic portraits that show the hopes and fears of the dying.

Laura Cumming reviewing the images for The Guardian/The Observer wrote the following: “Anyone who has ever been afraid of dying should see this show.  It is momentous, inspiring, cathartic.  It calls upon your full humanity.”  Please visit Life Before Death to see the images and to view the video that explains the intentions of the project.

Heiner Schmitz, age: 52 photograph by Schels

Photograph by Vance Jacobs

Below is a link to an interview with Vance Jacobs. Vance is an alumnus of the Savannah College of Art and Design.  The interview has some interesting observations on documentary work, advertising and technological shifts of the medium.

http://popphoto.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/qa-with-documentary-photographer-and-storyteller-vance-jacobs/

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Asadores, 2003 by Marcos Lopez

You can attend the VIP Art Fair 2.0 virtually which is pretty awesome.  It is the second year for VIP, and I have to say that it feels pretty much like a traditional art fair. There are 135 exhibitors from 35 countries, with good representation of exhibitors from around the world including the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.   The site is easy to navigate and filled with a plethora of information showcasing  galleries that represent emerging artists alongside dealers like Gagosian Gallery who represent the usual suspects.

You will also find an educational component to the site which is worth your investigation.  For example here are segments from Art21, the PBS television show devoted to art; discussions with dealers videotaped inside their galleries; and rotating “insider tours” of the fair.

The clouds are more beautiful from above; 2006Video/Film: HD video 8'49 Guido van der Werve

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Click  Miracles and Co to view the video

St. John's Church, Savannah, Ga, 1865

The Green -Meldrim House

Sherman’s headquarters while in Savannah, GA

Factor's Walk, Savannah, GA. Photo by George Barnard

This is an image By George Barnard looking west from Factor’s Walk.  Barnard had a practice of combining

interesting cloud formations with various landscapes to give the image an over all more appealing aesthetic.

Note the large size of the clouds and how they “bleed” into the land and river.

Unknown

Market Place, Savannah, GA, 1865

See what City Market looks like  today  and read about its history

Fountain in Central Park, Savannah, Ga. 1865

A modern version of this image can be found at

http://www.gatewaytothegoldenisles.com/article/id/1388/page/1 

Slave Quarters Under The Oaks At The Hermitage in Savannah, 1900- 1915

There is an interesting story about the above image at

http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2011/11/07/csi-old-virginia-coroners-edition/ 

The Hermitage, McAlpin Plantation

Henry McAlpin’s 400-acre plantation was located on the Savannah River, just north of the city of Savannah–the heart

of a rice-growing region. McAlpin was one of the wealthiest men in the South. He didn’t just rely only on crops for his

livelihood; he manufactured bricks, rice barrels, cast iron products and lumber, too.

Title: Cabins where slaves were raised for market--The famous Hermitage, Savannah, Georgia

Colonial Cemetery, 1900

Established about 1750, it was the original burial ground for the Christ Church Parish. The cemetery

was enlarged in 1789 to become the cemetery for people of all denominations.  More than 700

victims of the 1820 Yellow Fever epidemic are buried in Colonial Park Cemetery.  The cemetery was

already closed to burials before the start of the Civil War and no Confederate soldiers are buried there.

But the war did leave its mark on the cemetery. Federal troops took over the cemetery grounds

during their occupation of Savannah and many of the graves were looted and desecrated. It has

been said that Union soldiers changed the dates on many of the headstones.

Fig. 1 Le Blondel, Post Mortem Picture (1850)

The recording of memorial likenesses had traditionally fallen to the field of painting where large numbers appeared in both the United States and Europe. The death-bed portrait, whether a painting or a photograph, was the last chance a family had of keeping the memory of a loved one alive. While this was certainly a common motive for capturing these moments, some of the photographs differ from their painted counterparts in how death was portrayed. For example, when one examines post-mortem paintings, one usually observes a child depicted as alive. Often times, the only clue death has occurred is the presence of symbols whose meanings vary according to the society represented. In Figure 2 and 3 painted by William Sidney Mount’s son, Shepard Alonzo Mount, in 1868 we see two such examples. Both Camille and Nicholas are plump, happy, and alive. Each painting incorporates symbols that tell the viewer the painting is in fact a memorial portrait and not one depicting life. In Figure 2 a pocket watch rests on the ground probably indicating the time of death of young Camille. In Figure 3, we see the inclusion of a painted backdrop depicting weeping willows and a ship floating on calm water. The foreground depicts the child plucking flowers from the potted plant. A rose held downward or the presence of morning glories both indicate a life cut short. A boat floating on calm water symbolizes an easy death, whereas stormy water symbolizes the opposite. The weeping willow is an obvious indicator of the sadness that has transpired

Fig. 2 Shepard Alonzo Mount, Portrait of Camille (1868)

Fig. 3 Shepard Alonzo Mount, Memorial to Nicholas M. S. Catlin (1852)

Early post-mortem photographs share the impulse to show life instead of death by depicting the deceased in a variety of poses. Oftentimes, the body is depicted outside of the coffin (Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7).

Fig. 4 Secure the Shadow Ere the Substance Fade: Premortem photograph of a child Date c.1845

Sometimes, parents of the deceased hold their children in their laps and arms, (Figure 5). Other times bodies are propped in chairs as if they are carrying on a conversation or reading from a book or newspaper (Figure 6). For example in Figure 7 we see a post-mortem photograph of a young woman sitting up with her eyes open, holding a book. For the most part, even though there is the allusion to life through the posing of the individual, the bodies are noticeably dead.

Fig. 5 Mother Holding Dead Child: Child in Coffin Date c.1845-55

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

Fig. 8 Dead Child, 1860

In later post-mortem images, subjects are depicted in a more formulaic manner. The subject is represented in either a close-up or full-length body shot. Sometimes the camera is positioned directly over the body looking down onto it, as is the case in Figure 8 and in Figure 9

Fig. 9 Southworth and Hawes, Unidentified child, Deceased

but more times than not,  the camera is positioned at the same level as the body, emphasizing the face and its importance as a soon-to-be-cherished memory (Figure 9).

Fig. 10

Symbols like the ones represented in Figure 2 and Figure 3 are noticeably absent, with the exception of flowers that are common fixtures in many of these images. There is much more focus on portraying the dead as resting peacefully. Color is even added to the image to disguise the evidence of death. There were obviously exceptions to this from time to time. For example, photographers oftentimes found themselves arriving to make the death-bed portrait after the body had been prepared, which, as you can imagine, made for stiff, un-lifelike photographs (Figures 7 and 11).

Fig. 11

Bodies that could not be photographed in time were occasionally exhumed for the very purpose of facing the camera. That is what is so disturbing about Figure 12.

Fig. 12