Just as a person’s body tends to be returned to their family at death, so too does their visual essence. Framed photo montages of a deceased individual do important work in bringing together in one place the diverse aspects of the deceased’s personality, relationships, and life events. Bereaved individuals may find the process of creating the montage a constructive outlet for their grief, or may receive montages made by others to display in their homes. The practice of gifting montages to the close kin of the deceased marks a complex process of mourning in which things that belonged to the deceased are circulated amongst those left behind, and unseen images of them in the possession of more distant friends and acquaintances are allowed to ‘return home’. The gifted montage (or photo album) helps close relatives to complete their visual archive of the deceased, and to remember them in relation to the diverse aspects of their life.
Montage
