A unique photography exhibition exploring death and funeral rituals opens in Yssingeaux, France, featuring the work of local photographer Lucien Soyere. Running from November 1-16, the exhibition challenges cultural taboos surrounding photography at funerals and examines why such images are notably absent from family albums.
Lucien Soyere, a photographer from Monistrol-sur-Loire, spent several years developing this project with patience and sensitivity. His work was inspired by Sylvain Maresca's text "Un Rituel sans images. La vie sociale des images" (A Ritual Without Images: The Social Life of Images), which explores the cultural phenomenon of avoiding photography during funeral ceremonies. While everyday life is filled with photographed moments—a trend amplified by smartphone usage—funerals remain one of the few occasions where photographers become unwelcome in Western culture.
"Funeral photos and ceremonies around death are notably absent from family albums," explains Soyere, who never goes anywhere without his camera. "These aren't photos you would hang on your living room walls, but I believe they have their rightful place in family albums." His exhibition aims to confront this cultural blind spot and encourage people to face death more directly through visual documentation.
The exhibition will be displayed in two phases and locations. On November 1st and 2nd, visitors can view Soyere's photographs under a tent at the entrance to Yssingeaux Cemetery. Beginning November 4th, a more intimate version of the exhibition will be installed at L'Écume des Sucs bookstore on Rue Maréchal-Fayolle in Yssingeaux, where it will remain throughout the entire month of November.
The photography exhibition is part of a broader thematic fortnight organized in Yssingeaux to explore the topic of death through multiple artistic mediums. The program includes concerts and film screenings designed to encourage open dialogue about mortality. On November 6th at 7 PM, singer David Semerian will perform songs by Georges Brassens at Le Flow venue on Boulevard Saint-Pierre. The concert, with admission by donation, celebrates the French poet-songwriter who "loved to joke about death."
Additional events include a cinema screening on November 11th at 8 PM at La Grenette, featuring the film "Adieu Berthe ou l'enterrement de Mémé" (Goodbye Berthe or Grandma's Funeral). On November 13th at 6 PM, Le Flow will host "Les conversations du Flow," a free-entry debate discussing why funeral photographs are largely absent from family albums.
The exhibition also features funeral urns created by ceramist Eric Jousserand de Pierrepont, adding another artistic dimension to the exploration of death rituals. This comprehensive cultural initiative represents an innovative approach to addressing society's discomfort with mortality and the visual documentation of life's final passages, encouraging visitors to confront death as a natural part of human experience rather than avoiding its representation.
