People are dying to meet them: Get the picture?

Dan Meehan and Windy Rudnicki at their booth on Saturday at Rochester's October Festival. (Harrison Thorp photo)

ROCHESTER - Dan Meehan and Windy Rudnicki are looking to carve out a business niche amid the ranks of local photographers, and if you’re dying to appreciate their craft after reading this article, well, they’re OK with that, too.

Meehan and Rudnicki kicked off their new business – Memento Mori - on Saturday during Rochester’s October Festival where they set up a booth on Hanson Street that exuded the essence of all of life’s mysteries, but focused on death, for a reason.

You see death is a large part of what their photography is all about. Their business card says it all: “Senior portraits, Wedding and Post Mortem Photography … all of life’s moments.”

 “I’ve photographed lots of funerals,” Rudnicki said. “I mean for a lot of people it’s something you want to remember. It’s part of life.”

Their booth was festooned with all things both creepy and quirky, including “poison” bottles with skull and crossbones, bottles with cemeteries inside and miniature coffins.

Meehan, who is also a Rochester Firefighter and EMT, calls them “collectibles” that conjure thoughts of our own mortality, inspiring the name of their business, which translates to “Remember Death.”

Rudnicki, who is also an EMT, said she loves the tranquility and romance of cemeteries and considers them “galleries” of art. She said she has given graveyard tours in the past and prides herself on being able to translate the symbolism of tombstone art.

 “It’s like hieroglyphics,” she said pointing to a picture of a tombstone on their table. “Everything on that tells a story.”

Rudnicki has taken stunning pictures of cemeteries from all over the country and points out the particulars on each and every one she brought to the festival on Saturday.

 Rudnicki said a sideline of hers is giving cemetery tours that explain what you’re looking at when studying an old tombstone.

To get in touch with Memento Mori email mementomori@metrocast.net or look them up on Facebook. Or just wait …maybe they’ll get in touch with you, sooner or later.