JLY PROJECT/ FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY-PRODUCTION ART

A Dying Art

A Dying Art was a personal fine art photography project that I published through Blurb. I was inspired to the meticulous craftsmanship displayed in cemetery tomb markers and statues. It fascinated me that such extravagant pieces were constructed in a place absent of life. I also decided to produce a companion video to accompany the project shown above.

Approximately 55 million people die each year. 151 thousand a day, 6 thousand per hour, 105 each minute and nearly 2 per second.

With the average funeral cost of $7,000 the global population is spending 385 billion dollars on the deceased. This cost is a staggering expense, but I mostly marvel at the spaces which facilitate the deceased and how they are often quickly forgotten about.

Why is it that the human race takes such care for the dead?

I’m reminded of an essay written by Thomas Lynch entitled Into the Oblivion. In his essay Lynch says that this attention and care we give the dead is mainly for us because “the dead don’t care”.

. The interest consumed me to do this shoot as I began to think about the overwhelming expense invested into ornate headstones which are carefully placed throughout hundreds of acres of landscape which nobody occupies.

The photo were shot in black and white. This color selection goes with the theme and I believe also replicates the feelings that someone might feel when thinking of a lost loved one.

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