NARRATIVE – Forgotten today, the practice of posthumous photography was common in the 19th century. Disturbing photos brought together in the exhibition “Les immortels” presented in Paris since October 30.
In the age of the queen image, where everything is a photographic subject, if there is one thing that we no longer consider«immortalize»at least openly, it is indeed death. More precisely the body of the deceased who has just taken his last breath. However, it was in the second half of the 19e century and the beginning of the 20e century a common practice born with the invention of photography. A sample of the hundreds of post-mortem portraits collected by the Strasbourg artist Hervé Bonhert is today exhibited at the Alain Brieux bookseller in Paris until December 14 as part of the PhotoSaintGermain festival.
How disturbing in our eyes are these images of the deceased, most of whom lay dormant in attics before being exchanged between collectors. To visitors who feel a little “voyeurs”Philippe Baudouin, curator of the exhibition «The Immortals»replies that we should rather see “a tribute to life”. “Why do we consider these images…
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