A still from ‘Death Photographers,’ a short documentary on the photographers for cremations on the Ganges (screenshot by the author via YouTube)
Arriving with dance and music, draped in orange and pink flowers, the dead keep constant company in Varanasi, India, where cremations happen by the hundred each day on the Ganges River. Whole industries support the last rites, including photographers who for a small price will take a portrait of the deceased before their pyre is lit and ashes are consigned to the water’s flow.
“Death Photographers” produced by filmmaker Varun M. Nayar was released on Seeker Stories, a new documentary digital network debuted last month by Discovery Digital Networks (of Discovery channel, among others). The short film profiles a few of these photographers as they roam with digital cameras amongst the sweltering flames and stench of decomposition. However, as the narrator explains, “death is not something looked down upon here, it is not creepy, it is celebrated.”
Some are amateurs without any photography training like Natte Jha, supporting his family while juggling between two inexpensive broken cameras: one to take the photograph and the other to show it to the family before it’s printed. Deepak Kumar, on the other hand, is a professional photographer who picks up the extra work during “lean times.” In the poorer areas of India where cameras aren’t often affordable, the images are like the old postmortem Victorian shots in that they’re preserving a final memory of a loved one, maybe the first and last time their portrait will be taken. A farmer, Manohar Jha, adds that there are other reasons: “They are used to prove the person is dead for inheritance or in government records. Sometimes, family members and children who could not attend would like to see a final photo. Some offer daily prayers to the photos.” As “Death Photographers” emphasizes through filmmaker Nayar’s interviews and vibrant footage of the Ganges riverbank, the photographers are a small part of the life that happens here even at death, creating quiet images of the beautifully adorned deceased, the last time those faces will be photographed before the flames.
h/t Scroll.in
The Latest
MTV’s The Exhibit Is Back With an Inflatable Dolphin
Episode four, in which artists tackled themes of justice and injustice, was the most lifeless of the reality TV show so far.
Florida Principal Ousted Over “Pornographic” Michelangelo Sculpture
Parents complained that the famous sculpture was shown to their sixth graders.
The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation Presents The Feminine in Abstract Painting
Curated by Jennifer Samet and Andrea Belag, this group exhibition in NYC explores the feminine through aesthetics, as opposed to identity or gender.
Tickets to Sold-Out Vermeer Show Are Going for Hundreds
The online resale market for the Rijksmuseum’s smash exhibition is booming, with tickets selling on eBay for over $2K.
NYU Steinhardt Opens 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibitions
Taking place at 80WSE Gallery in New York’s Greenwich Village, Part I is on view from late March through April while Part II opens in May.
Miniature Worlds: Joseph Cornell, Ray Johnson, Yayoi Kusama
Through small-scale works, this exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in New York examines Cornell’s prominent role in the lives and careers of Johnson and Kusama.
Three Looted Antiquities at the Met Repatriated to Turkey
Nine other repatriated works were seized from Met Trustee Shelby White, whose collection was subject to a criminal investigation.
Required Reading
This week, the world’s lightest paint, Pakistan’s feminist movement, World Puppy Day, and were some of Vermeer’s paintings created by his daughter?
The Wider World and Scrimshaw
On March 28, join the New Bedford Whaling Museum online and in-person for a symposium on global carving traditions from across the Pacific Rim.
Who Will Decide on the Future of a Miami Native Burial Ground?
Native activists say sacred remains and objects dug up from a Brickell construction site should remain there, but mega-developer Jorge Pérez is pushing back.
How Can a Curator Approach South Asian Futurisms?
How do I acknowledge my shortcomings while reckoning with obscured histories and the exclusion of subaltern narratives in the fine art landscape? A working checklist for curators.
MCA Chicago Presents On Stage: Frictions
Will Rawls, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, and Barak adé Soleil explore Blackness, queerness, movement, and dance in performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
The Complicated Legacy of Camilo Egas
The Ecuadorian painter, a leading figure of Latin America’s Indigenismo art movement, has been both praised and scorned for his representation of Indigenous peoples.
Tom Jones Zeroes in on Ho-Chunk Visibility
“I think about the young kids, the teenagers, and I think being able to see yourself represented in art is so powerful,” says the artist.