The first thing you need to know about me is that I am dead. No, not dead tired, I'm stone cold dead and have been for many years now.

 

I will spare you the unpleasant details of my passing but it is important that you understand I am pushing up daisies, six feet under, nailed to the perch. I'm very much dead.

 

Having established my current state of being, or lack there of, the other thing you need to know about me is that I loved to take pictures. I wasn't exceptionally talented and I could never have made a living at it but I could hold my own in a crowd of amateurs and it always gave me great pleasure to capture the light that suffused my life.

 

Not being one to let life's little setbacks stop me from doing what I want I have decided that the mere fact of my death should not prevent me from sharing some of my photos with the corporeal world.

 

Now, I didn't actually take all of the photos in this collection. I am the subject of some pictures so where I have merely inspired the photo I have done my best to credit the photographer.

 

How, you may ask, can one who is no more manage to post pictures on Flickr? I could answer that question but I am not going to. There are some things in life and in death that simply can not be understood or explained without first-hand experience. Let's just say that how it is managed is just one part of the GREAT SECRET that we all learn when our time finally comes.

 

What is more important, or at least more interesting, is why the dead would wish to post their pictures to a photo sharing site.

 

I could say something sappy about not being forgotten, that through our pictures we will live on in the hearts and minds of those we leave behind.

 

I could say something profound about capturing, in photons of light, an indelible record of the past that will bring new meaning and enlightenment to future generations.

 

Both may be true, but the real reason for me to reach through the black veil is because, well, you have pissed me off. Perhaps not you, in fact since you have taken the time to read this I'm sure that you are really very nice so please don’t take offence.

 

I am pissed with all those so-called photographers out there with their digital, point-and-shoot wonder-boxes, snapping away like there is no tomorrow, not giving their work any real thought.

 

In my day every shutter click cost you money. You considered each picture, framed it like it meant something. You careful thought about the lighting and composition because once you pressed that button you couldn't use some fancy technology to fix your mistakes.

 

I also hate the fact that all this new technology seems to make you believe that you invented the medium. It is my hope that by posting my pictures and encouraging other dead folks to post their pictures, we will remind all you "breathers" that photography has been around since the 1850's and many, many talented people have come before you.

 

If you're dead and you have photos you would just love to share, I encourage you to join the The Dead Photographers Club. Post your best pictures to the group and help start a movement amoung those who move no more.

 

 

If you are the living guardian of the work of a dead photographer, you can post the best pictures of their collection in a sub-group of the Club called the Dead Photographers Club – agents and archivists.