The idea
Mourning photographer Boukje Canaan, who founded the training for mourning photography, talks about it in Villa VdB. It started with personal misery. In 2001 I lost my twins Vin and Enzo at nineteen weeks of pregnancy. The hospital gave me a copy of the Polaroid they had made of the twins. That’s protocol: a photo must be taken as proof that they existed for the file. I hated that so much, I put that copy away and never looked at it again.
In 2009 my mother passed away. I thought: there must be nice pictures, but my husband said: ‘You are not going to do that yourself.’ That’s why a friend took the pictures. I asked him to make a report. It was a big deception! A pile of photos where we didn’t even get up. I’ve been awake for nights about this. After that I did my own research. Other photographers found it very scary to photograph a funeral. What they did was she set up a tripod in a spot where everyone would pass by. Then I thought: I’m going to do this myself!
How do you proceed?
‘I record a lot. It takes hours of work. There are so many moments to capture. You have to fine tune what people want. There are also people who find it very scary that I come. I always photograph a dead person whenever possible. I deliver those photos in separate folders. When browsing through an album, they don’t immediately come across this. I make sure I work very quickly, I don’t stand for a photo very long. I also go in black, the crew is in black. Every speaker, every changeover moment, everything is important. Details, the light, beautiful places.
New study
Boukje started the farewell photography training in 2015 and 70 people have now obtained a diploma: ‘The training lasts one year, only 10 people can participate per year. We do a lot: Homework assignments, photos. But the training is mainly about communication. How to make agreements with your customers/relatives. What do you do if you get hit yourself? Or if something unexpected happens. How do you trade? Those are topics we discuss.’