About people taking photographs at funerals

[microcosmia]

I was a bit taken aback recently at a family funeral when a person who was not a relative of the deceased produced a camera and took shots and a video clip at the burial. No one else was doing this and I am certain this person did not have (or seek) permission from the family to do this. Is this normal practice now? (in which case I may be overreacting). I can imagine some families might not have a difficulty with it but in the case of mine it was seen as not being the done thing.

[saulaboutme]

I've seen this at a West Indian funeral and was so shocked as the deceased had committed suicide and had had a very thorough post mortem.
My friend explained the family do this and it's their way of remembering their dead.

At dhs grannys funeral some if the family videod and took pictures but only of flowers really.
I wouldn't like it but as long as the service isn't pictured I wouldn't mind.

[FreudiansSlipper]

I have quite a few photos of my grandad and his family all looking very smart in their best suits (guessing taken in the 1920/30's) taken at funerals I think it was the norm

[lisianthus]

In your case, OP, I would be consulting solicitors and seeking to have the pictures removed and a written apology. To use the photos of your grieving family as a business advertisement on FB is beyond offensive.

[thatisall]

We had this at a family funeral a couple of years ago. It was the relatives of the deceased persons secret lover :-o

I thought it was very weird indeed.

I've seen it happen at balloon releases at a child's funeral and that didn't seem odd at all

[thatisall]

I just searched Solid Gold Brass on facebook and all that comes up is a band :-/

[WandaDoff]

I think the OP was referring to SolidGoldBrass the MN poster up there ^

[SolidGoldBrass]

Yes, she was addressing me rather than naming me as the rude photographer. I have never taken photographs at anyone's funeral (I think I did once take a pic of flowers to show someone who couldn't be there) and certainly haven';t put them on a website. I promise... .

[microcosmia]

I can confirm SolidGoldBrass is entirely innocent! I reread my earlier post and it could be ambiguous but yes I was replying to SGB.

Just to update on the funeral pictures on FB we've discovered this is not the first time this person has done this! We made some enquiries and learned that the same thing happened to another family. They complained after it was brought to their attention. They felt it was connected to the person's involvement in local politics I hope it's not. It's not cultural, we are in Ireland where this would be unusual for here. The person has been contacted via their site and asked to take down the photos.

[ChippingInGoAndyGo]

micro - It sounds very weird - they need telling!! Why on earth would they want funeral photos for their engineering website - sounds mad?!

BrilliantWhite - did you even bother reading the thread? I would hope you haven't, as posting something so insensitve if you had, would be pretty shit.

SauvignonBlanc - personally, I think people are far more important than supposed 'etiquette'.

[thatisall]

Very good very good, I shall stand at ease then casually hides plans to besmudge their name

[TraceyTrickster]

My Anglo Saxon FIL died and was a widower. His late wife was SE Asian...all the SE Asian contingent started snapping pics as the crematorium curtains opened. We were open mouthed having never seen it before but H has lived all over the place and said it was not unusual

[SolidGoldBrass]

It's not that it's wrong to take pics as a personal memento, particularly as that seems to be fairly common to several cultures. It's the fact that this individual was doing it for some sort of crappy self-promotion - ie 'look how popular and involved in the community I am.' What a total knob.