Photographer Captured Fascinating Photographs that She Found on Old Tombstones in Italian Cemeteries

According to a photographer Laura Signorelli: “I’m a 36-year-old Italian who is fascinated by the past and by many things that are death-related. That is probably because I lost my parents at a young age and I was forced to deal with mortality, loss, and mourning.”

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“I created an Instagram account to collect pictures of the photos of old tombstones, mostly found in Italian cemeteries. I love cemeteries, and the different conceptions people have about them around the world, and also the differences in the way they are (e.g. in Italy, all tombs have photographs while in other countries they are not used at all). I really like funerary art, cemeteries’ artistic value, beautiful statues and also inscriptions on old tombstones, the type of language and symbolism, and also I am fascinated by post-mortem photographs.”

“I also love old photographs from the 1800s and early 1900s that depict the first attempts in portrait photography. They are historical and fascinating. Sometimes it’s also possible to find post-mortem photos (photographs of the recently deceased) as it was an acceptable memorial practice in the 19th century.”