Parental Grief and Photographic Remembrance by Felicity T. C. Hamer

Author:Felicity T. C. Hamer [Hamer, Felicity T. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Photography, Subjects & Themes, Lifestyles, Popular Culture, Techniques, General
ISBN: 9781787693234
Google: EurNDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Published: 2020-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

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EMBELLISHING TRACE

‘Not only does death bring the tragedy of turning people into things – of subject into object – but it might also start inanimate objects to life.’1

Certain photographic objects are simply more special than others and it is the beholder that makes them so. The experience of a photographic object represents a kind of culmination of multiple events. Key moments that occur within both analogue and digital photographic processes are that of illumination (exposure) and identification (recognition). But special photographs experience an additional stage, that of embellishment.

Photographic portraits provide ample fodder for remembrance activity. And yet, the continued tendency to enhance photographic portraits through the addition of tactile components such as hair, reveals a longstanding suspicious attitude towards the true nature of a photograph’s relationship to the referent. As Geoffrey Batchen notes, once their signification and emotional appeal has been strengthened through embellishment, these hybrid objects are now more than ‘just the remnant of an instant’s exposure to light’, they are ‘less situated in a specific moment, more ageless, less mortal’.2 Through embellishment, photographic portraits overcome the ‘split-second-ness’ of photography and the sensation that time moves along, leaving a now physically absent individual, in the past.

Lavished with special attention, cherished photographs are enhanced with deeper signification through the addition of meaningful elements or written notes. These additions pay tribute to the absent individuals, communicating loss and indicating a desire for continued connection. But they also express a certain degree of anxiety – about the passing of time, about loss and perhaps, about forgetting (the absent individual and/or the sense of oneself that was somehow connected to this individual). Conveying the additional care and effort of the maker, these photographic objects take more time to read and tell more of a story.3

In nineteenth-century Western culture, many have established mourning to be – at least historically – a woman’s area of expertise.4 Primary caregivers in the home, women cared for family members after their death as well – preparing their bodies for viewing but also dominating in multiple commemorative practices.5 One notable activity was the production of hair jewellery, produced in previous centuries but returning with renewed popularity in mid-century America. The fabrication of these mementoes became a popular domestic activity for women, an expression of grief that memorialised – and contained a trace of – the departed.6 Hair was worked into elaborate braids, weaves and patterns to be set under glass, or woven into chains for bracelets, for necklaces, or for men’s pocket watches. Christian Holm describes mourning jewels as ‘exhibited secrets’, the wearer presenting themselves ‘as a participant in a hidden intimate network, from which other viewers are excluded’.7

A note of consolation, penned by John Horsley in 15 November 1866, indicates the potential comfort a lock of hair can bring. Soon after the loss of a third child to scarlet fever, he writes to his wife Rose on the event of her birthday:

We may be infinitely happy in the thought that our great affliction has brought us nearer to

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