What the Photograph Is Silent About: How Modern Postmortems Help Us Live

What do you imagine when you hear "post-mortem photography"? Scary pictures of dressed-up corpses from the Victorian era? Or randomly found cards from village funerals? Each of us has encountered this phenomenon, often asking the question: why is this even necessary? The author of this book, Liza Svetlova, not only tells about the history of post-mortem photography but also about its present, explaining how through such practices we learn not to fear death, but to accept it and come to terms with the loss of loved ones.

What this book is about:
- that modern postmortems exist and can be discussed without horror, trash, and fetish, but with attention, amazement, sympathy, and even tenderness;
- about family practices, personal photo diaries, postmortem blogs, how they help cope with the departure of a loved one;
- about how the fashion industry aestheticizes the image of death and why decay, illness, and the departure of "superheroes" help accept our own aging and finiteness;
- why photographers shoot documentary projects in morgues and hospices and what this has to do with the Vietnam War and detective TV series;
- and also about maniacs, the phenomenon of "hidden mothers", death doulas, "green" and "living" funerals, and "death cafes".

In the book, you will find not only all the relevant research but also self-help instructions for dealing with the loss of relatives and friends, as well as personal stories and the global experience of researchers and photographers involved in postmortems. Some of the photographs inside are provided by the author herself, while others were sent by people who shared their experiences of living with grief.

About the author: Liza Svetlova, a photography theorist, curator, and founder of a project studying dying, death, and immortality, big death lab.