Sociology

Death has long been something that human beings have struggled to find ways to cope and deal with, and the methods used for memorializing and honoring the dead change from culture to culture and over history. Some ancient cultures sacrificed animals, while others observed a mourning period during which only specific mourning garments were worn. Native American women cut off their hair and went without bathing or changing clothes for a period of up to one year after a husband was killed. In America, one of the ways that we have honored our dead over history has been through photography and memorial ceremonies. While these customs have become more and less elaborate, included more religious figures and different family members and generally evolved over the passage of history, it is always the goal to use these memorials as a channel for the trauma and grief being felt. Steven Burnss photography illustrates how these emotions are dealt with by grieving family members, how these rituals have changed over time, and how the ritual for memorializing a lost loved one is different depending on their age and gender.

It is clear from Burnss photography that the process of memorializing a deceased loved one through a memorial photograph is different for men and women. The men and women featured in his photographs are physically posed differently, and the backgrounds upon which they are placed are vastly different. The women typify Burnss title of Sleeping Beauty because many of them seem to have been arranged to reflect just that notion. An excellent example of this concept is the photograph of the nun in photograph  73. She is dressed in her nuns habit, which evokes a holy feeling in itself, but she is lying in a casket lined with frilly white satin, giving the casket a cloud-like appearance and making it look like she is in heaven or that she is an angel in repose. Adding to the Sleeping Beauty-like feel of the photograph is the lush foliage that is placed in the background of the casket, softening the caskets edges even more and giving the photograph a relaxed, natural feel. The photograph gives the viewer the impression that she is being mourned, but that her mourners already envision her in heaven, peaceful and beautiful.

Children were also often given an angelic appearance in memorial photography, indicating that those that would be remembering them through the photograph wanted to picture them as sleeping angels instead of being dead. The two boys together in photograph 63 illustrate this gentle treatment of deceased children. Like the nun, the boys are posed as if they are tucked into bed instead of lying in a casket. They are turned towards each other, as if they are providing each other with comfort. One boys arm has been protectively placed over the shoulder of the other boy, as if he is guiding him or protecting him even in death. The casket is covered with pure white flowers, softening its appearance and giving the same cloud-like heavenly illusion as the white satin in the nuns coffin. The practice of giving women and children the look of Sleeping Beauty in memorial photography is described by Alex Harris as, showing the elegantly prepared bodies resting peacefully on beds or in ornate caskets surrounded by seas of satin and flowers.

In earlier photography, mothers posed with their deceased children instead of posing them in caskets with flowers, wreaths and cloudlike satin. Photographs  2 and  5 illustrate this trend towards mothers creating one last memory with their deceased child by posing with them as if they were still alive to memorialize them postmortem. In photograph 2, the mother holds the child on her lap much as if the child were still alive. This is reflective of a mothers grief and inability to emotionally let go of her child. It is easy to see how posing with a deceased child for a memorial photograph could have been used as a method for coping with the grief and trauma of losing a child. Modern mothers have therapy groups and counseling available to them to help them deal with those emotions it is possible that mothers of the past used these memorial photographs as the same sort of outlet. Photograph  5 shows the mother with the child posed as if it were sleeping and an angel above the childs head. The angel is looking upwards towards heaven, but the mother is looking down at her dead child and her grief and loss can be plainly seen on her face. She appears composed, yet devastated. Harris explains that, Early photographic processes required long exposures, and consequently the poses and expressions of many of the mourners in these pictures appear somewhat stilted. Few, however, are able to hide their grief. It is clear that this mother is feeling the effects of a lengthy photograph session and also with the grief she is experiencing.

For all the reverence placed on deceased women and children, there is little bestowed on deceased men. Instead, men are often featured in stoic, full-length casket shots, making them appear tall and somehow strong even after death. In the photograph of Jesse James body, there is absolutely no adornment on either the corpse or the casket. James is photographed shrouded in white, presumably covering provided by a coroner, in a plain casket. The casket is surrounded by men watching him attentively though, giving the impression that even after his passing he still needed to be closely guarded to keep him from escaping or breaking the law. The photograph seems like a less-than-glamorous memorial for such a notorious outlaw, perhaps signifying that no one was supposed to mourn him or grieve over his death because he was a criminal.

The photograph of Abraham Lincoln is also a full-length shot, but shown from an upward angle as if from above. Lincoln, too, is being watched over by men, but the tone is different than that of James memorial photograph. Here it appears that the men are watching over him, standing guard in honor of him instead of policing him. Lincoln appears regal and stately, and his position is reflected in the American flags that drape the left and right sides of the photograph. The adornment here is still much simpler than in photographs of women or children, but still manages to be fit for a fallen president.

The initial impression from these photographs seems to be that women and children are mourned more and for a longer period of time than men, that criminals are not mourned at all, and that men are only mourned in respectable, strong ways. Women and children are depicted as going to heaven, while men still somehow need to appear masculine and strong even in death. But this is perhaps a reflection on the attitudes towards the two genders at the time. The primary duties of women were those of wife and mother, so it was to be expected that a mother would be beside herself with grief at the loss of her children and need to see them represented as peaceful, sleeping angels. Deceased women still needed to appear virtuous and pure, like angels on clouds. Men were to be mourned more privately, because it was to be believed that men died honorably or bravely, which can be seen in the way that Abraham Lincoln was posed. He was murdered, but he is posed as a fallen hero because he was beloved as a leader of America. The ways that the bodies were posed, the caskets adorned and the family members posed with them all indicate a very different, more private sense of mourning in the past. They were more willing to display an open casket than we are at modern funerals, but the actual mourning and coping was done privately, while the memories were preserved to share and remember the lost.