Whether to include the photographs is a separate question and it has its own guide. This is about the words, once they are in.
They are harder than the photographs, and the instinct that makes them hard is a good one: wanting to do justice to somebody. That instinct produces captions that are too large.
Photographs of someone who has died →
Smaller is better, almost always
A caption cannot hold a person. Trying to make it do so produces the tribute voice — “a light that touched everyone she met” — and the tribute voice is where individuals go to become general.
What survives is specific and small:
- “She never once said the word properly.”
- “Papa, on the scooter he refused to sell.”
- “Ranjan Kumar, 1948–2019. He built the shelf behind him.”
Each is one detail. Each is unmistakably one person.
| Works | Does not |
|---|---|
| One habit, one detail | A summary of who they were |
| Their actual words | Words about them |
| What they made, kept, refused | “Deeply missed” |
| Names and years | A eulogy under a photograph |
Tense
Past tense for what they did. Present tense for what is still true.
“He made the best tea in the family” and “the shelf is still there” can sit in the same caption, and the mixture is how people actually talk about somebody who has died.
⚠️ Avoid switching a whole book to the present tense as a device. It reads as a refusal rather than as warmth, and it makes the book difficult to read aloud.
Whether to mark it at all
Three approaches, and they suit different books:
Do not mark it. Same captions as everyone else. This is right for a family archive where the person appears in some photographs among many — the book is about a family, not about a loss.
Mark it once. A dedication at the front, and nothing in the captions. Writing a dedication →
Mark it fully. Dates, a page, an account. Right for a memorial book, and only for one. Best format for a memorial →
What does not work is halfway — marking it in a few captions and not others makes the book lurch between registers.
Write it for the people who will read it
A child who never met them needs the plain facts: full name, years, relationship, what they did.
Somebody who is grieving needs the details rather than the summary. A specific habit is easier to read than a paragraph about loss, because it is a memory rather than a reminder. Captions that make sense in thirty years →
And you do not have to be able to do it yet
There is no deadline. A book made in three years is not late, and the photographs will still be there.
⚠️ Our copies are not — we keep files for seven days after dispatch and then delete them permanently. Your own originals are the ones to keep.
Frequently asked
What should I write about someone who has died? One small specific detail rather than a summary. A habit, a phrase they used, something they made.
Past tense or present? Past for what they did, present for what is still true. Both in the same caption is how people actually talk.
Should I mention that they have died? Once, in a dedication, or not at all in a family archive. Marking it in some captions and not others makes the book lurch.
What should I avoid? The tribute voice. “A light to everyone who knew her” could be written about anybody.
Is there a right time to make it? No deadline. A book made in three years is not late.
Part of our guide to captions and messages. See also: photographs of someone who has died and writing a dedication.
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