All photos courtesy of Matthew Rolston/vanitasproject.com
Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits is a new photographic series from artist Matthew Rolston that documents the incredible "mummies" from the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily.
From his site:
MATTHEW ROLSTON’s latest photographic series, Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits, is comprised of portraits of mummified human remains housed in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily, where the religious, aristocratic and affluent classes from the 16th through the early 20th centuries chose to display their dead, fully clothed, as a measure of societal and spiritual distinction, and in an effort to bring them closer to eternal salvation.
Absolutely stunning portraits of the many mummified inhabitants of the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo. Each bathed in a blue glow, the earthen-toned figures maintain a warm, yet still somewhat horrific highlighted contrast. The orange and brown hues of the preserved flesh retain a strange lifelike tone to the ghastly remains of each figure.
The Capuchin Catacombs have been on my bucket list ever since I had first discovered their existence years ago. I'm absolutely fascinated with the mummified figures and that even with their sometimes advanced stages of decay, are accepted and viewed as an historic religious site. Someday, I will make it to this site and take in all of its wonderful sights.
And as a haunter, I find the Capuchin Catacombs to be an immeasurable source for reference material. The real-life mummification is on view for all to see, and for people like myself to use as a vastly important source when creating corpses in my home haunt crypt.
For more photos and a wonderful slideshow video of more of Rolston's gorgeous photos of the Capuchin Catacombs, please visit his site at vanitasproject.com.
There is also a great in-depth interview with Rolston on this project over at Vice.
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