Momento Mori – Death and Photography in Nineteenth Century America

Memento mori photography exhibition:

»A memento mori is a form of image that urged a European person of the late Middle Ages to “remember thy death.” To do this, a memento mori might represent death as a human skeleton — perhaps as the Grim Reaper gathering his harvest — or it might depict human bodies in an advanced state of decay. Its purpose is to remind the viewer that death is an unavoidable part of life, something to be prepared for at all times. Memento mori images are graphic demonstrations of the fact that death was not only a more frequent, but a far more familiar occurrence in medieval Europe than it is today.«

(via schockwellenreiter)