I wonder whether a mortuary can be considered a public place since it is in many ways very private. However, this year I attended a couple of funerals at a local mortuary and made a number of photographs while doing so with permission from the mourners. Views towards death have relaxed considerably over the last quarter of a century or so and funerals often provide a space in which relatives meet together and in spite of the sadness surrounding the occasion, tend to enjoy each other's company. Photography is appropriate in as much that it gives people who may not see each other very often, a way to keep in touch and remember the departed. In the following series of photographs, I am trying to reveal not only the building but the way in which it functions with people.
the hearse and driver
mourners arriving
The priest
The service
The priest conducts the service
A solitary visitor
guests
a guest leaves
flowers for the dead
gone but not forgotten
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