Musical Accompaniment: Last Kind Words by Geechie Wiley
I love this Geechie Wiley song. And its darkness makes it perfect to accompany this strange 1909 photograph by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.
It’s called The Gown and the Casket. The title is a little ambiguous. I associate caskets with death, but the word only means a small box or chest to store valuable things. Because of the camera angle, you can’t tell what kind of casket is in this photo, but it gives you a strange feeling of dissonance, especially when paired with the magnificently dressed and coiffed woman standing beside it.
If this picture tells us a story, who do you guess she is and what is happening in this photo? What’s in the casket, and why is she wearing that elaborate gown?
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My cynical side would say, she’s a very recent widow who purchased an ostentatious gown with life insurance money!
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That the photograph involved two photographers, one with the Middle Name Octavious, itself makes the photo intriguing. Those facts coupled with the austere woman in a luxurious clown standing next to casket on a pedestal, with her back towards the camera to display the details of back of the gown, makes me wonder if it is a fashion ad photo.
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This might be a rare occasion where I disagree… this doesn’t look like a fashion ad to me. Usually ads for clothes depict them at an angle so you can see their features. I think this picture is telling a story, like painting or another artistic medium. What that story is, well, that’s an open question. There’s something menacing about the woman in the photo. Cubism was a response in some ways to photography encroaching on the artistic storytelling space!
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Even 100 years ago, a casket was usually associated with death. Who would turn up for a wake in a dress like that? And it looks like she’s smiling. I’m going to guess she was a wicked woman who put someone out of the way.
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She does look like she’s smiling! Very creepy!
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