Fotografia pogrzebowa w polskiej obyczajowości funeralnej wczoraj i dziś
An anthropological review of post-mortem photography in Polish funeral tradition: past and present

Summary/Abstract: In this paper the author analyzes the tradition of post-mortem photography in Poland. The analysis is based on her own research conducted in the city of Lodz, as well as on articles written by other authors in Poland. Post-mortem photography is the practice of photographing the recently deceased. Photographing corpses of family members was an important, if not common, occurrence in the lower classes of polish society (especially in rural populations) in the 19th and the early 20th century. And it still exists today. The memorial images - now often deemed macabre or morbid - are actually artifacts which document an unspoken part of our social history and can be seen as icons of love and loss as well as the history of funeral customs traditions.

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