Burial grounds and grave markers are an important part of our heritage and deserve to be treated as such. They reflect the lives, the beliefs and the attitudes to death of past communities and individuals. They are landscapes of both poignancy and sadness, whose memorials provide a window into our ancestors past thoughts and deeds together with a rich seam of archaeological evidence for the avid researcher. Nonetheless, today these ancestral gems are disappearing at an alarming rate. In an attempt to record this tide of destruction, in the autumn of 2013 Morte Photography was born, to bring to life the plight of such historical and architectural treasures.
Symbols of Mortality - Exploring Orkney's
Funerary Art and Architecture
After seven long years of continual up and downs, bizarres twists and turns, medical turmoil, hospitalisation, strife, Uncle Covid, raging storms and an exhibition curse that plagued everyone involved, I am delighted to say that my exhibition, entitled Symbols of Mortality - Exploring Orkney’s Funerary Art and Architecture, finally opened in Orkney Museum last weekend. Talk about a labour of love - and pain! I have so many people to thank for not only believing in me, but who stayed with the course throughout those seven years. Therefore, I would like to express my eternal gratitude to both Tom Muir, Orkney Museum and Fran Flett Hollinrake, St Magnus Cathedral, without whose support and kindness I no doubt would have failed. The exhibition is comprised of a significant number of graveyard/cemetery images together with some stunning funerary artefacts, the exhibition runs from 8th February until the 1st March. Events included a gallery tour on the 8th February, followed by the Symbols of Mortality Conference on the 22nd February, and a special guided tour of the gravestones in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall with Cathedral Curator Fran Flett Hollinrake. Other events will be announced in due course. Exhibition merchandise is available via the official Symbols of Mortality Shop.
For further information regarding any aspect of the exhibition, please feel free to drop me a line in person, or contact Orkney Museum.
Morte Photography and Research is the brainchild of Archaeologist and Death Historian Lorraine Evans. "For some years, due to a serious health issue, I found myself unable to travel to Egypt, in order to pursue my PhD research, and subsequently chose to locate temporarily to the wilds of Scotland to recuperate. I was well aware of the vast richness of Scottish archaeology yet, with a heavy heart, I felt these intervening years would be both a professional and personal low-point for me. Oh how wrong could I be! For it soon became apparent that my new world was full of archaeological wonderment in the guise of local burial grounds and graveyards. I shall kerb my zeal somewhat but suffice to say I became enchanted, some may argue a little obsessed, with graveyards and their inherent symbolism and I soon found my days consumed by a wide variety of death-skulls, memento mori imagery, totemic emblems and the ambiguously entitled ‘pirates graveyard’! Nonetheless, after spending months lurking within the confines of various old burial grounds it soon became apparent that many of the incised graveslabs, tombstones and commemorative wall plaques were in an appalling state. It was a worrying state of affairs that gave me many sleepless nights, yet rather than sit back and do nothing I decided to make a concerted effort to redress the balance before this rich burial heritage was lost forever. Hence the birth of Morte Photography and Research.
If you have any queries, please feel free to make contact at any time. Email enquiries can be sent via the Contact Form of direct to info@mortephotography.co.uk
Disclaimer: Please note that as an archaeologist/historian, I do not use filters, Photoshop or any other camera trickery on my photographs. The aim of Morte Photography was, and still is, to make a record of burial grounds/graveyards as they stand that very day. Return visits are then made to ascertain potential deterioration and/or damage to the gravemarkers. Pretty images are simply not a factor in Morte Photography's objectives.