Palermo Catacombs #10 (Girl with Flowers)

In 1963, while traveling in Italy, Hujar photographed bodies at the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo. From 1599 to the 1930s, the corpses of the elite of Sicily were preserved—frequently framed, sometimes behind glass—for family members to visit. The bodies remain there to this day. In these works Hujar showed the eerie beauty that lies in this attempt to capture the essence of life in death and reflected on photography’s association with memorialization.