Plačky. In Search of the Crying Lady

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Plačky [platchki] were professional mourners that used to be an essential part of the Slovak death ritual. They were hired by the family of the deceased and would start the mourning process by coming to the house where the body was laid out and lament until the day of the funeral. The ritual was seen to have magical powers that would secure a respectful and definite leave of the deceased’s spirit from the house and from this world. Plačky were usually older women – often widows that would perform in return for financial remuneration but also for beans or wheat.


In the summer of 2011 we set off on a search to find professional mourners in Slovakia. We found out that the tradition was no longer being practiced despite the insistence of locals that we spoke to along the way and the encouragement we received from ethnographers.

During this journey, we encountered paradoxes of psychology behind keeping old traditions. We also examined the subject of death, rituals, and mourning. In Search of the Crying Lady essentially became a search for the non-existent, extinct tradition that had died before anyone had realised. It had become a documentation of the road to failure.

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady  © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Untitled from In Search of The Crying Lady © 2011, IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

IPG is an experimental collaborative project of Yoshi and Tamara Kametani who met in Edinburgh, UK while pursuing their BA degree in Photography and Film. Yoshi and Tamara started IPG in 2010 and they currently live in New Jersey. IPG projects are initiated by personal interest and curiosity for experience.

Visit IPG facebook site: facebook.com/ipgproject

Yoshi Kametani was also featured in prism #03 with his project "Plastic Spoon".