A Dance of Life and Death

Ceremonials reflect the essence of who we are, as humans. Birth, weddings, religious celebrations, death. At all these moments, human emotions and relations are at their paroxysm. There is nothing stronger than the joy of baby born, or the grief caused by the loss of a loved one. The latter is also an extremely difficult emotion to document through photography. How to approach someone in emotional pain and capture her? Is it possible to photograph without stealing an emotion? This project is an exploration of the particular ceremonial of death in Ghana. Before retrieving the dead from the mortuary, People chant and dance, weep and scream, all at once, while behind the doors, the embalmer is preparing the body, The paroxysm of all human emotions, all in honor of one man. A peculiar dance of life and death. The series was shot only with the use of a 50mm. It was fundamental for me not to deprive the people of such an important moment, and I chose to be part of them, as close as I could,