Putting Your Best Face Forward: Younger pictures in obituaries

10/25/2009
Look carefully at the obituary page of your local newspaper and you'll notice that the photos of the deceased often show them to be much younger that they were at the time of death. If the age difference is significant, it can be confusing for readers because they will often pass by the obituary thinking that the familiar name belongs to someone else. This is especially true with military service photos because today's dress uniforms and portraits are often very similar to the ones used in earlier conflicts. I understand the desire to use a meaningful photo, and love to see the old ones, but as a funeral director, I counsel families to use one that friends will recognize in the obit, or to use two photos to show both ages.

from Bobby Neel Adams' Family Tree series

A recent study suggests that there is more to this phenomenon than meets the eye. A trend has been found where the age disparity of these photos grows greater each year. The reasons behind this trend are not necessarily linked to vanity, as most photos in my experience are not chosen in advance by the deceased, but by the survivors.

from Bobby Neel Adams' Family Tree series

The study was examined in an article published in the Jerusalem Post today. Here is an excerpt:

A recent study at Ohio State University that looked at photographs published in The Plain Dealer of Cleveland found that the number of obituary photographs showing the deceased at a much younger age more than doubled between 1967 and 1997. And women were more than twice as likely as men to have a youthful obituary photo, said OSU social work Prof. Keith Anderson, who coauthored the study.

Anderson said either spouses or adult children of the deceased chose the photographs. They understandably wanted a photo that they thought represented their spouse or parent at his or her peak, he said. But what is remarkable is how we as a society define these peak years.

In 1967, about 17 percent of the obituary photographs surveyed in the daily newspaper were "age-inappropriate" - meaning they showed the deceased at least 15 years younger than when they died. By 1997, the rate (among 400 obit photos) had increased to 36%. "Obituaries and their photographs are one reflection of our society," wrote Anderson in the study published in Omega: Journal of Death and Dying. "Our findings suggest that we were less accepting of aging in the 1990s than we were back in the 1960s." for the full article, visit the Jerusalem Post

Fear Of Losing The Existence: Photography of John Clang

5/23/09
In his series 'fear of losing the existence', photographer John Chang examines the fear that many of us feel when contemplating or experiencing the death of loved one.  We hold on tightly in our fear of losing these precious memories.   We try to picture our loved ones and struggle to recall all of the details of our time together.  In December,  I posted a related piece, 'Dad's Hands', featuring an excerpt from the blog 'Born a Girl' in which the writer finds details of her lost father slipping from her memory.  She finds, however, that ultimately the important feelings and memories are never lost.  In  'A Grief Observed', author, C.S. Lewis encounters the same situation after losing his wife.  After a devastating loss, the thought that even our memories may fade away, makes that loss seem even more difficult to bear.  Lewis found, though, that when he stopped trying so hard to cling to his memories, and to picture clearly his beloved wife, that the images and memories came back to him.      

http://www.johnclang.com/

"The subject of this series is my parents-in-law.  They are currently in their 60’s, getting older and weaker each day.  We are separated by thousands of miles and I only get to see them once a year.  Each time I see them, they look different.  Their faces change with more wrinkles, their hair has grown thinner and they have become more fragile.  A sign of aging.  Sometimes when I miss them really badly, I realize I have difficulty in picturing their faces accurately in my mind. I’m very afraid that one day I will not be able to remember their faces anymore and we will become total strangers." -John Clang

http://www.johnclang.com/

Beautiful

http://www.flickr.com/photos/godiex/2924461420/

[T]he other day I found this pic in my mum's bedroom. I didn't understand what was going on so I asked her about it. She told me that when I was 4 or 5 I found this pic in pieces in the trash bin (she didn't like herself in the photo and ripped it and threw it away) so I picked up the pieces and glued them together on a sheet of paper. -from Godiex' Flickr Page http://www.flickr.com/photos/godiex/2924461420/

Memory

http://academart.com/Savelieva_soviet_period_art.htm

Savelieva Valentina, 1991