Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Memento Mori by Paul Koudounaris

From the author of 'Heavenly Bodies' and 'The Empire of Death comes Memento Mori. 'From bone-filled burial caves in Indonesia to smoking skulls in Bolivia, photographer Paul Koudounaris’s macabre images of decorative human remains and ossuaries reveal that, in many parts of the world, the dead remain among us. Memento Mori by Paul Koudounaris is published by Thames & Hudson on 16 March.

 Koudounaris is a gifted narrator, vividly recounting the stories and traditions that lie behind his ghoulish but beautiful photographs, which reveal that in many places, the realms of the living and the dead are nowhere near so distinct as Western society would have us believe. 

Sedlec ossuary in Sedlec, Czech Republic

One of many skulls - or Ñatitas - found in homes in La Paz, Bolivia. They are used as good luck charms

Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome

St Pancratius, Church of St Nicholas, Wil, Switzerland

A smoking skull in a home in La Paz, Bolivia

A decorative skull in the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand

Capuchin monastery, Burgio, Sicily

A large ossuary tomb beneath the town church in Lampa, Peru

Sicilian mummy from Burgio, Gangi

Oppenheim ossuary, Oppenheim, Germany

Konrad II, Basilica Minor of St Michael, Mondsee, Austria

Mummified Buddhist monk Luang Por Ruam, Wat Kiriwongkaram, Koh Samui, Thailand




ALL photos credit to Paul Koudounaris

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