Jeff Cagle
i am a freelance news and editorial photographer living in the chicago suburbs.
my portfolio is at jeffcagle.com. You can also find me at instagram.com/jeffcagle
get in touch: jeffrey [dot] cagle [at] gmail
Ask me anything
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I shot my first funeral yesterday.
It’s an odd, uncomfortable feeling to be standing in a cemetery holding a couple of cameras as you wait for a casket to be lowered into the ground. My colleague Brian Powers has been following the ups and downs of a little girl named Kylie who was battling a rare form of brain and spinal cancer. She lost her fight earlier in the week at the age of four.
Kylie’s parents asked Brian if he could be at her wake and funeral to document it for them, and he then asked if I could meet him at the cemetery to help with the final shots. After the crowd of around 100 mourners finished paying their last respects and scattered away, Brian and I were left with the two groundskeepers and the funeral director as Kylie was lowered and sealed into the vault.
It was my first funeral for work, and though likely not my last, I hope to not cover — or have to attend — many like Kylie’s. After collecting his final shot and we walked back to our cars, Brian said, “They shouldn’t have to make caskets that small.”
