'For the last time': the Hiltman-Kinsey post-mortem photographs, 1918-1920

Abstract:
"Postmortem photography offers important challenges for media and visual specialists developing a critical analysis of
intertextuality and visual narratives. This article shows how visual studies of postmortem photography can be expanded and nuanced by considering how cultural logics and historical contexts determine the practice of photographing the dead. I examine postmortem photographs executed between 1918 and 1920 in an immigrant community in the United States, and explain the roles of the photographer and the funeral director in creating these visual narratives. I argue that despite all the professionalism that went into making a community funerary rite memorable, postmortem photographs reveal
ambiguity, contradiction and disorderliness, as well as fear, to the inquiring eye."