I’m interested in how the dead are presented in preservations. The most obvious form of presentation would be in photographs like in ‘Taken from Life.’ That’s where I saw the most variance among the photographs. There is a general effort to beautify the dead that likely comes from our persuasion to deny death, however, its forms are many. In some photos, there is little effort to conceal the fact that the person is dead, they are simply made to look beautiful and the photographs are taken to preserve their likenesses. Other photos go to greater lengths, seeking to fool the viewer into believing the dead one is alive. In the article, all but one of this kind are group photos. It is as if the picture is aimed at preserving a past state of the group; a state where the deceased was a part of it. Even here, there are various approaches, as the young are presented as having fallen asleep while a kind of voyeuristic beauty is bestowed unto reclining young women. This isn’t to suggest that the Victorian era upper classes were full of necrophiles, but rather to postulate that the deceased were often presented in idealized states in these photographs, often going so far as to glow in crisper color than the others by nature of their stillness. This idealism is so contrary to death that it might ease the grieving process. Nowadays, there’s no need for it as most of us are photographed daily, and this has made us averse to the process, but I’d have a hard time believing that these photographs were taken because the people were more comfortable with death.