Life in a morgue


  • Photographer
    Mariangela Gallo
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    20 August 2016

This project is about a woman, M., who works with the deads. Through her very unique point of view I found myself reconsidering mine. In the most genuine way she showed me a world that only few of us visit, while alive and how she has been able to bring art and music to purgatory.

Story

M. works in a morgue in a little village in the North of Italy. It’s a small morgue on the back of the hospital. A tiny chapel stands in front of it.
M. is about 50 years old and she looks even younger. She has long curly hairs and a tattoo that she made herself on her left wrist reading agua.
When M. welcomed me in her office, I was surprised to find a guitar, a sketchbook with tens of pencils and even pieces of canvas and paint brushes.
‘There isn’t much to do around here, some days it’s just me and few other guests in the anatomy room and I play for them or I make portraits of them, so I can remember when they are gone’
She said all of that as it was the most normal thing in the world, and I was confused.
‘When they are gone? Aren’t they already dead?’
‘They are dead, of course, but so what? It’s my job to look after them’
‘Playing for them?’
‘Why not? Are you sure they can’t listen anymore? Have you been dead?’

When we entered in the anatomy room I was a bit reluctant. I wasn’t sure I was going to take pictures, I didn’t feel right. But then M., in the most natural and genuine way, started to introduce me to her guests.
R. was 87 years old and passed away the day before. She had 6 grandchildren and had been married for almost 60 years. She was wearing the black dress her children picked for her and had clean, well brushed, grey hair.
M. draw my attention to the make up she did on her in morning
‘She has green eyes, so I’ve used dark violet eye shadow and some pink blush as she is kind of pale. I’m sure she would like to look at her best at her funeral, all her family and friends are going to be there’ she explained .
Yes, she really was kind of pale.

She showed me some drawing and painting of previous guests. I asked about a too young, beautiful, blond girl she painted. ‘She looked like my daughter’ it’s all she said.
Then started to play. She sit on an empty table and played for R as she could listen. Well, after all who am I to say that she couldn’t, I haven’t been dead, how could I know.

M. is not moved by religious motivations and she knows very well that her guests are corps. Perhaps she has just found a way to feel less lonely but what I felt was genuine compassion, affection and awareness that we have no idea of what happens when our body dies. Everything could end in that moment or maybe not.

You can create multiple entries, and pay for them at the same time.
Just go to your History, and select multiple entries that you would like to pay for.