Margaret Morton's Cities of the Dead Photographs

This slideshow is part of: Margaret Morton's Elegiac Photos Capture a Crumbling Culture

During the summer months of 2006 - 2009 Margaret Morton, professor at the School of Art, visited Kyrgyzstan, the mountainous region of Central Asia, to photograph the mirage-like cemeteries. A collection of those photos, Cities of the Dead: The Ancestral Cemeteries of Kyrgyzstan (University of Washington Press) was published in 2015 and an accompanying exhibition opened at the Arthur A. Houghton Gallery at The Cooper Union in February. Here is a small sample of those images. All photos are courtesy Margaret Morton.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.