Tamil Nadu: The Indian men who photographed dead bodies

Caution: Dead bodies are depicted and described in this story.

When Srinivasan, the owner of a photo theater, sent Ravindran on an task, he was 14 years old.

Ravindran recalls his first day of work in 1972,” My task was to put a lifeless body on the chair and make it stay right.”

Therefore, in order for the photographer to take a picture, I had to pull its eyes.

John F. Kennedywas just nine when he had a similarly unnerving experience. He was asked to hold up a white cloth as a backdrop behind a chair on which a corpse was seated.

” I was frightened and trembling. I had no rest at all that day, he told the BBC. ” The dying man kept appearing in my recurring nightmares for several times. It was awful.

Both gentlemen pursued photography because their fathers ran picture studios. Together, they have taken pictures of over a thousand deceased individuals.

They are one of the few photography who used to specialize in photographing the deceased in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. Many of its communities held the view that being photographed would reduce your lifespan up until a couple decades before; many people only had their first photo taken after passing away.

The two gentlemen discussed their strange, disconcerting work, a lucrative profession in the 1970s and 1980s, with the BBC.

Ravindran, who only goes by one brand, claims that he disliked his work as a teenager but had good reason to leave school because of this.

I went together to get pictures of the dead after a few months of training, he claimed.

He eventually honed his own methods, such as changing the background, adjusting clothes if necessary, and propped up a cow’s head with pillows.

” I overcame my anxiety and began to enjoy my work.” In photos, I made dead body appear nice and real.

John F. Kennedywould accompany his father to work in the Yercaud hills, about 350km (about 217 miles) west of Tamil Nadu’s capital, Chennai.

The filming of a dying newborn baby was his most challenging experience.

The kids were inconsolable. The family was sobbing uncontrollably.

However, the mom bathed, changed the girl into a new dress, and applied some makeup after he arrived with his cameras.

He recalls,” The girl looked like a bird.” I took the picture as the family set the infant on her lap. The infant appeared to be sleeping.

It was very personal, I said.

They also took pictures of different rituals, such as washing the body and floral decoration. Others were more exacting, while some people were content with just one or two photos.

Ravindran recalls,” I actually went to a burial ground and took pictures as the body was being buried.”

When grieving families requested a framed photo of the deceased for sorrow rituals the following day, they occasionally developed and printed photos immediately.

Richard and Ravindran both used relatively simple devices that captured black and white images.

The majority of their clients were Hindus and Christians. In their worship areas, some of them also display pictures of their deceased loved ones.

Richard even worked for the police force, where he captured images of bizarre murders, including those caused by crimes, deaths, and car accidents, in which the body were frequently severely dismembered.

It was extremely unsettling. I occasionally don’t eat or sleep.

His images were used as courtroom testimony and aided communities in obtaining settlements.

In addition to receiving good tips from family members, the photographers could charge twice their normal fee to photograph dead bodies. However, their grisly line of work came with a great deal of shame.

Richard claims that” Many people were hesitant to use me for any other work.”

Before entering his house or studio, Ravindran had to go through a necessary cleansing because his Hindu household considers places associated with death to be dirty.

Every day, I had to get a shower. Before taking my camera inside the studio, my father would yet sprinkle some water on it.

In some nations, it used to be common process to take pictures after a person passes away. Some bereaved families posed with their deceased children and other relatives in the middle of the 19th century.

At a time when images were cheap and numerous people didn’t have any pictures of themselves, people used taking pictures of dead bodies to realize their loved ones.

The dead body was frequently placed over an ice wall in homes in the US when the photos were taken. In Victorian Britain, dying painting was also common.

However, the practice persisted longer in Tamil Nadu and other Indian states like West Bengal and Odisha( Orissa ), as well as in the holy city of Varanasi. This may have been because healthcare increased life expectancy in many parts of the world during the 20th century.