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All images from Colourful Coffins
Colourful Coffins
If you like this, check out:
Retronautic WTF III
24 Hours in One Photograph
Portrait of Crime
Futurliner c.1939
Brigitte Bardot at Cannes, 1953
Colour photographs of New York, 1950s, by Saul Leiter
'Amazing Mystery Button' Ad
Soviet Cameras
BMW R7 Prototype, 1937
Cafe Lehmitz, 1967-1970, by Anders Petersen
Max Tundra's Wallet, 1988
Captain America Propaganda Posters
Early 3-D Photographs
Colour photographs of children, 1936-1947, by Nickolas Murray
Streets of New York, 1950s, by Vivian Maier
U.S. Senate menu, 1964
Vintage Weight Gain Ads
Dressing c.1860
Steampunk Zoo
The First Bikini, 1946
Pin-Up Girls Before and After II, 1950s
Various random graphics in the shape of a virtual coffin further demonstrating that you can have any tacky photo applied to anything…
I just don’t get it.
I fail to see the retronautic value.
I concur with the above comments. Random .jpgs in a coffin shape – why?
Judging from the website, far from being coffin-shaped jpegs these are very real, and it would seem that people are actually being buried in these things.
I think the retronautic value lies in the clash between the apparent timelessness of the traditional coffin and the images chosen which are in many cases in a specific time and place. They also narrow down the rich complexity of a life to one isolated characteristic or preference selected to define the individual for all eternity. Who makes that choice? How?
Within the variety available there is real absurdity on offer (imagine being laid to rest for eternity in a coffin decorated as a giant bag of golf clubs); also choices such as the “pink princess” child’s coffin which will be made in the hope of ‘lightening’ the funeral but will more likely be the occasion of unintended and almost unbearable poignancy. Each to his own but I personally find these in some cases rather infantile (think “Thomas the Tank Engine” bedding) and in others downright disturbing.
I note that a “tardis” designed ashes casket seems to be on offer.
As usual, Jimmy A. expresses it perfectly.
The “box of chocolates” coffin is one the creepiest of all, on so many levels. Associations of romance, luxury, self-indulgence, a treat, give way to horror once the lid is lifted and the contents of the bottom layer are revealed.
While I’m sure that picking one of these images on the website would lead to a real coffin being made with your selected design, I’m quite certain that these pictures are CGI mock-ups, not photographs of the real thing. Every coffin is identical in shape and perspective, as are the shading and lighting details.
I take the very good point about being buried for eternity in a very particular reduction of yourself, but these images aren’t themselves very evocative.
I agree with John Simpson.
Although you can ultimately order a real one, these are simply JPEG mockups for demonstration purposes. The fact that you can effortlessly wrap the “virtual” coffin in literally any JPEG thoroughly dilutes Jimmy A’s explanation. There is literally no end to coffin shaped images -> absolutely nothing special.
“Too bad” I’m being cremated!
…except that coffins are still used for cremations….
Changing subject slightly, cremation has always been my “favoured” way, as it has been for many of my family. However, at 6ft 5in, many crematoria would not be able to accommodate me. I’m quite intrigued by Cryomation – much more environmentally friendly, and size isn’t an issue.
More appropriate woud be a box of cigarettes.
Just some bad Photoshop. Sucks.