Customer Reviews

Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement in Memorial Photography American and European Traditions

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If you are interested in historical Post Mortem, then this book is for you.

High quality hard cover book with a black dust jacket.

I have it and i love it~~ I purchased it in late summer early fall of 2002 when it first came out.

The first book is valuable, i wish i could acquire it or afford to someday~~

meanwhile i am happy with the second version.

hope that they put out a third version someday~~

Some people might think that this is eerie, to say the least.

But folks back in the 1800's had little or no money for photos of the living~~

And many people died young back then~~ medicine was still in its infancy so there was not much for cures...

Taking a photo of the deceased was the last earthly time that one would see that person...

So I do understand the need....

Photos of Parents or Parent with Child seem most revered by collectors...

any way, it's a beautiful book, worthy of its subject~~

An absolutely brilliant collection of mortuary photography compiled by the one and only Stanley Burns. The collection is wide-ranging and the photographs range from bland to poignant to artistic to anthropological to fascinating to creepy with stops at all points in between. This collection compiles the original set of images originally released in the hard-to-find and long out-of-print first edition (Sleeping Beauty), and the images are well-known from their inclusion as part of the "Book of the Dead" in the brilliant movie The Others. Burns documents as much as is known about each photograph, littering his commentary with insightful anthropological details that explain the motivation behind the images, and their supreme importance to the people who had them taken. An extraordinary work.

Having grown up with postmortem photography in my family albums, and raised by two Victorian German-Polish Americans, this subject did not seem taboo to me. Both Stanley Burns and Jay Ruby(Secure the Shadow) recognize that these photos are shocking to some, however once over any shock you might feel, the images tell so much more than that of living images..just like any archeological,anthroplogical study..we always learn more from the dead than the living. If you already collect postmortem items, this book will save a lot of money as he has collected the images for you! I only wish the first Sleeping Beauty would go to reprint, heck you have to take out a bank loan to get one! Another good one I mentioned earlier is Jay Ruby's "Secure the Shadow". I am currently buying Michael Lesy's "Wiconsin Death Trip" and would need another bank loan to grab James Van Der Zee's "Harlem Book Of the Dead"..If anyone has a copy of Sleeping Beauty, the first one..and just doesn't want it around the house 'cause it is morbid and they want to sell it fast and ..well..cheaper..LET ME KNOW!!! Dawn.

This book is a sequel to the surprisingly influential but little seen book "Sleeping Beauty;Post Mortem Photography in America" by Stanley Burns, M.D.

Of course with a subject matter such as this, the potential for exploitation and cheap thrills must be addressed. Let me clarify that this is a scholarly work by a medical doctor. He puts the history and concept of Memorial Photography into a social, cultural and intimate familial context which defies the more lurid aspects of the images. Each beautifully reproduced image spans a full page, and contains a thoughtful description by the authors of why, where and for whom the photogtaph was taken. Some of the images are especially beautiful and poignant; particularly Plates #4,5,9,14,102,111,113 and 114.

The scope of this book is much larger than the original Sleeping Beauty, both in terms of time and geography. European Post Mortem Photography is introduced here, as well as forms the art has taken in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. See the amazing plate #77 of Mad King Ludwig from Bavaria, who was likely killed by his own subjects for spending the nation's wealth on fanatastic architecural works like a vast underground lake filled with swans!

The book was being finished around the time of the Terrorist Attacks on 9/11/01, and the author felt compelled to include the use of photographs as memorials to the victims of that attack whose bodies would never be recovered. So ironically the book closes with an inversion of the original concept of the post mortem photograph;the photograph as symbol and stand-in for the deceased, or more accurately "Memento Vita." This is a common use of photographs in current funerary practice.

Who would be interested in this book? Photographers and Undetakers are the two obvious professions which come to mind. Oddly, the two professions cross over in that they both seek to make the best presentation possible of a person's image. The photographer and the funerary science worker both strive to make a person look their best, alive or otherwise! Historians will find this useful as well, and grief counselors are mentioned by the authors.

A few observations on my part, as a photographer about topics covered in the book. The authors note that European Post Mortem photographs are usually framed, and American ones rarely so. American photographs up until the early 20th century were carried in small,exquisitely detailed cases of leather and velvet. This was for mobility. Americans were moving westward and needed to take belongings with them quickly and easily. America has always been a mobile free moving society which values portability. Europeans are more entrenched in place, so frames would not be a hindrance.

The authors note the use of Polaroid instant film as the main replacement of formal post mortem photographs in the 2nd half of the 20th century. These are almost always taken by the family of the deceased. I think that because the Polaroid was developed on the spot, with no one outside the family looking at the picture, such as a lab technician, it was a more intimate object. The image of the loved one never had to leave the protective circle of the family. The Polaroid picture is the natural successor to the Daguerreotype. Its small size, portability and inabilty to be reproduced make a Polaroid more of a precious object. It will be curious to see what directions photography and funerary practice take in the 21st century.

Dr. Burns did another superb job on this book. I own both Sleeping Beauties, plus his books on treating respiratory diseases. Dr. Burns approaches all his subjects in a professional, scholarly manner, free of sensationalism. He treats the subjects of memorial/medical photography and the people depicted in the images with the respect they deserve. Hope one day I'll be able to make it to New York and study images at the Burns Archive.

This is a fascinating subject in a well organized book, with large high quality photographs. A must buy...if you can find one under $1000! LOL
If you can only get one, I do think you should get Volume II...it is a little better than Volume I.