Fields & Frames - Memento Mori

So ages ago me and my mother were talking about the infamous 'Memento Mori' pictures, this translates to 'Remember you must die'. These were very popular in Victorian England, where diseases like cholera and typhus were claiming the lives of many vulnerable citizens (youth and the elderly). It was fashionable to grieve the dead through photography, keeping a memento of those who had passed. 

The process used to take these photos was the daguerreotype, this was a long exposure form of photography. This meant those posed in the photo's had to stay still for minutes on end, this can help identify who the deceased was as the living members sometimes came up blurry or out of focus due to movement. The deceased would normally be put in a position where they could lie down, be held by a family member or propped onto a stand. 

These photos are pretty eerie once you know the nature of them, they can also be very sad. You can find many photos of mothers holding their children, or siblings standing together holding hands. 

I have previously investiagted a bit of the dehumanisation of women and people, I think coensiding this method with the dehumanisation of future technology/attitudes could be really interesting and striking. This leaves me to decide as to what mediums do I want to use for the final piece.