About Me

I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Spooky shots of volunteers wearing nothing but white sheets at the Festival of Skeletons… taken to mark Day of the Dead For a man whose career is taking pictures of naked volunteers, these photos will hardly be shocking. But to the average viewer these shots by Spencer Tunick - taken early morning at the Festival de Calacas (Festival of Skeletons) in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico - will be rather spooky. Mr Tunick, 45, used the eerie landscape of Los Senderos village and 150 volunteers in white sheets for his ‘Spirits’ project, to mark the Day of the Dead - which pays tribute to people who have died. Mr Tunick, who was born in 1967 in Middletown, New York, trained at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan before studying at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been creating astonishing human art installations for the past 20 years, gathering hundreds or thousands of naked volunteers, aiming to create scenes where humans blend with landscape. One memorable previous effort saw him photograph 1,800 naked people arranged in the coloured seats of the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria, which hosted the Euro 2008 football final. Mr Tunick boasts on his website that he has been arrested five times while trying to work outdoors in New York City since 1992, with the last of these coming in 1999 in Times Square, Manhattan. However Mr Tunick was so desperate to continue working on New York’s streets that he filed a lawsuit against the city to protect himself and participants from future arrests - which he won. But his website adds that he has not worked on the streets of New York in a decade, after he was rejected when applying for his first New York City permit after winning his case against the city. Now it seems Mr Tunick has found a soft spot for travelling south to work in San Miguel de Allende. He told the New York Times in June of this year: ‘I head down to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico quite often these days where I have learned to appreciate a good tequila like Casa Dragones.’

    Spooky shots of volunteers wearing nothing but white sheets at the Festival of Skeletons… taken to mark Day of the Dead

    For a man whose career is taking pictures of naked volunteers, these photos will hardly be shocking.

    But to the average viewer these shots by Spencer Tunick - taken early morning at the Festival de Calacas (Festival of Skeletons) in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico - will be rather spooky.

    Mr Tunick, 45, used the eerie landscape of Los Senderos village and 150 volunteers in white sheets for his ‘Spirits’ project, to mark the Day of the Dead - which pays tribute to people who have died.

    Mr Tunick, who was born in 1967 in Middletown, New York, trained at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan before studying at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

    He has been creating astonishing human art installations for the past 20 years, gathering hundreds or thousands of naked volunteers, aiming to create scenes where humans blend with landscape.

    One memorable previous effort saw him photograph 1,800 naked people arranged in the coloured seats of the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria, which hosted the Euro 2008 football final.

    Mr Tunick boasts on his website that he has been arrested five times while trying to work outdoors in New York City since 1992, with the last of these coming in 1999 in Times Square, Manhattan.

    However Mr Tunick was so desperate to continue working on New York’s streets that he filed a lawsuit against the city to protect himself and participants from future arrests - which he won.

    But his website adds that he has not worked on the streets of New York in a decade, after he was rejected when applying for his first New York City permit after winning his case against the city.

    Now it seems Mr Tunick has found a soft spot for travelling south to work in San Miguel de Allende.

    He told the New York Times in June of this year: ‘I head down to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico quite often these days where I have learned to appreciate a good tequila like Casa Dragones.’

    Day of the Dead: From Mexico City to London Town The Day of the Dead celebrates the lives of loved ones who have died while also reminding people about their own mortality. The festival, which is known as “Dia de Muertos” in Spanish, is traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2 in Mexico. Seen as a fusion of Catholic and indigenous cultures, the festival is characterised by altars, visits to graves and celebrations with traditional food and music. But the festival is no longer only found in Mexico, with festivals cropping up in cities around Britain. Read more here!

    Day of the Dead: From Mexico City to London Town

    The Day of the Dead celebrates the lives of loved ones who have died while also reminding people about their own mortality.

    The festival, which is known as “Dia de Muertos” in Spanish, is traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2 in Mexico.

    Seen as a fusion of Catholic and indigenous cultures, the festival is characterised by altars, visits to graves and celebrations with traditional food and music.

    But the festival is no longer only found in Mexico, with festivals cropping up in cities around Britain.

    Read more here!

    nuestrahermana:

    Dia De Los Muertos Is Not Your Halloween by Nuestra Hermana

    As we all know, Halloween in America is right around the corner. Kids & adults alike will be dressed up in costumes, consuming candy, attending parties, navigating through haunted houses and thoroughly enjoying their night. Think about your last Halloween and look at the images above.

    These are still shots of Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, California & Arizona. They are small snippets of a vibrant, important and REAL holiday for Latin@s. This is not your Halloween.

    Dia De Los Muertos developed out of over 2,500 years of indigenous ritual celebrating death and paying respects to loved ones who have passed away. Scholars state that the Aztecs originally held a month long festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the ruler of the afterlife.

    After Spanish colonization and many attempts to eradicate the rituals & festival, a new merging with the Catholic holidays All Souls Day & All Saints Day developed over time to what is now Dia De Los Muertos.

    Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated November 1st & 2nd (in alignment with All Saints Day & All Souls Day respectively). It is NOT celebrated on October 31st, it is not tied in with Halloween in America at all.

    In Mexico, November 1st is dedicated as Dia De Los Inocentes, a day to honor and respect the innocents, children & infants to be more specific. November 2nd is Dia De Los Muertos, the day to honor deceased adults.

    On these days, altars are made in honor of them. People build them on their loved ones graves, at home or anywhere they find rightful to honor their loved ones. They make ofrendas (offerings) to the dead of their favorite foods, toys (for children), pictures, pan de muertos, sugar skulls and many other things that help guide the spirits of the dead safely to the altars. Marigolds, known as the flowers of the dead, are usually prominent in the altars.

    In Mexico, many people sleep overnight at the graves. Every ritual & altar is not the same everywhere. Many places have their own traditions and ways of honoring the dead. One thing is for sure, Dia De Los Muertos is not Halloween. It is a sacred time and holiday for Latin@s everywhere.

    So, when you’re dressing up for Halloween remember: doing this, this, this or this is not only disrespectful but it is also a erasure of someone’s real life culture. Think before you walk out of that door.

    (via mexicanisimo)

    Spending Time with the Family In Pomuch, Mexico a visit to the grandparents involves more skull cleaning then you might think. When you die in Pomuch, you are really only taking a short rest. After a three year rest underground, it’s time for you to get back to work. Your family comes to visit on the third Day of the Dead since you died and digs you back up. (This can be a rather traumatic experience for the relatives, but it is their duty to your memory.) Once out of the ground, your bones are cleaned with brushes, transferred to a wooden crate, and placed on display in the cemetery. The more your relatives care the more work they put into your display, creating a slightly competive atmosphere. You may be dead but you still have to keep up appearances. The ritual which is said to help deal with the pain of death and keep the family together, is also tied to a belief that a poorly taken care of relative can “become angry and wonder lost through the streets.” There is some concern that as the youth of Campeche become more modernized they will abandoned the tradition of cleaning the dead. In the words of one local man speaking of his children “I can’t make them do it, but if they don’t, I don’t know where I’m going to end up.”  Via Atlas Obscura

    Spending Time with the Family

    In Pomuch, Mexico a visit to the grandparents involves more skull cleaning then you might think.

    When you die in Pomuch, you are really only taking a short rest. After a three year rest underground, it’s time for you to get back to work. Your family comes to visit on the third Day of the Dead since you died and digs you back up. (This can be a rather traumatic experience for the relatives, but it is their duty to your memory.) Once out of the ground, your bones are cleaned with brushes, transferred to a wooden crate, and placed on display in the cemetery. The more your relatives care the more work they put into your display, creating a slightly competive atmosphere. You may be dead but you still have to keep up appearances.

    The ritual which is said to help deal with the pain of death and keep the family together, is also tied to a belief that a poorly taken care of relative can “become angry and wonder lost through the streets.” There is some concern that as the youth of Campeche become more modernized they will abandoned the tradition of cleaning the dead. In the words of one local man speaking of his children “I can’t make them do it, but if they don’t, I don’t know where I’m going to end up.” 

    Via Atlas Obscura