Death Masks

The concept of a death mask intrigues me.
We take photography's sheer immediacy for granted.

Without photography, art, or various other forms of self expression, images would live only in memory. Preserved images are a form of immortality. I don't know if death masks were viewed as a form of artistic expression as they served the purpose of documenting and preserving.
Many tribal people are still deeply suspicious of cameras and will react violently if they realise that someone is photographing them. Many believe that you steal a bit of someone's soul with each image.

I photographed these images at the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum in Manhattan over Christmas.

Believe it, or not.