'secular icons'

'Susan Sontag...writes...of how "certain photographs...can be used like memento mori, as objects of contemplation to deepen one's sense of reality; as secular icons...."  

...primetime viewing on public television, the major television networks, or online providers provide a steady stream of death-related or mortality-awareness content, including access to massive volumes of visual material and footage through venues such as YouTube, Vimeo, and social media platforms....

[Beyond information and entertainment, these images] give occasion for reflection upon a viewer's status as a mortal (and either an immortal with an uncertain future or not an immortal at all).'

D.i.D., pp. 6-7, citing Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, p. 119

​http://www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/books/regardingPain.shtml