Matthew Rolston. Untitled, #Pa1061-1554, Palermo, Italy, 2013, from the series, “Vanitas” © MRPI
In 1597, the Capuchin friars of Palermo, Sicily, had a problem: The crypts they’d been using to bury their deceased brethren were overflowing. To have more space, the brothers excavated a huge underground cemetery, making use of ancient caves. When the time came to move the corpses to their new resting place, the friars discovered something remarkable. Forty five of the bodies were naturally mummified, with still-recognizable faces. The monks believed it was a miracle and proclaimed the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo a holy site. It is now filled with the elegantly dressed corpses of 8,000 Sicilians—some of them friars, but many of them wealthy civilians—who died between the 16th and early 20th century.
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Over the centuries, poets and artists like Lord Byron, Otto Dix, Francis Bacon, Peter Hujar, and Richard Avedon have visited the catacombs, creating works of art inspired by these exquisite corpses. In recent years, American photographer and director Matthew Rolston—best known for shooting glamorous portraits and music videos for (living) celebrities like Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, and TLC—turned his lens on the long-deceased residents of the Capuchin catacombs for a new series called Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits.
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VICE caught up with Rolston to find out what it was like photographing corpses inside the catacombs in the dead of night and what Italian mummies could possibly have to do with artificial intelligence and evolution.
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