All Souls
Procession
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATHLEEN DREIER
I picked up my first camera in 2005 and photographed by first All
Souls Procession as a spectator in 2008. In 2010, I submitted some of
my images on the topic of death and dying to an All Souls Procession
art show and received Honorable Mention. One of the awards was a
coveted Media Circle Pass that gave me all access to the Procession and
Finale stage. That is when my essential relationship with Many Mouths
One Stomach (the non-profit mother organization of the All Souls
Procession) began. I have been a core Media Circle member ever since.
It is a profound privilege and sacred act to document the public’s
remembrance and celebration of their deceased loved ones. To
photograph the Procession is to be a witness-bearer to that which joins all
participants in this collective experience—death. To photograph people
solemnly, harmoniously walking as one with their sorrow continues to be
a blessed transformative experience.
56 | ART OF DYING