Photography and Death: Framing Death Throughout History 9781839090486, 9781839090455, 9781839090479

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PHOTOGRAPHY AND DEATH

EMERALD STUDIES IN DEATH AND CULTURE Series Editors: Ruth Penfold-Mounce, University of York, UK; Julie Rugg, University of York, UK; Jack Denham, University of York St John, UK Editorial Advisory Board: Jacque Lynn Foltyn, National University, USA; Lisa McCormick, University of Edinburgh, UK; Ben Poore, University of York, UK, Melissa Schrift, East Tennessee State University, USA; Kate Woodthorpe, University of Bath, UK Emerald Studies in Death and Culture provides an outlet for cross-disciplinary exploration of aspects of mortality. The series creates a new forum for the publication of interdisciplinary research that approaches death from a cultural perspective. Published texts will be at the forefront of new ideas, new subjects, new theoretical applications and new explorations of less conventional cultural engagements with death and the dead. Published titles Brian Parsons, The Evolution of the British Funeral Industry in the 20th Century: From Undertaker to Funeral Director Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Death, The Dead and Popular Culture Matthew Spokes, Death, Memorialization and Deviant Spaces Racheal Harris, Skin, Meaning, and Symbolism in Pet Memorials: Tattoos, Taxidermy, and Trinkets Dina Khapaeva, Man-Eating Monsters: Anthropocentrism and Popular Culture

PHOTOGRAPHY AND DEATH: FRAMING DEATH THROUGHOUT HISTORY BY

RACHEAL HARRIS

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India Malaysia – China

Emerald Publishing Limited Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK First edition 2020 © 2020 Racheal Harris. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited Reprints and permissions service Contact: [email protected] No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-83909-048-6 (Print) ISBN: 978-1-83909-045-5 (Online) ISBN: 978-1-83909-047-9 (Epub)

For Roy and Julie, my parents. I know that all my strange and morbid childhood fascinations were once a cause for concern. As we see now however, everything in life has its purpose…

CONTENTS List of Images

vii

Acknowledgementsix Introduction: Death and Post-mortem Photography in History

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1.  Romance: Post-mortem Photography

19

2.  Anonymity: War Photography

41

3.  Continuance: Spirit Photography

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Pictorial Inserts

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4.  Violence: The Lynching Photograph

109

5.  Ownership: Celebrity Death

129

6.  Science: Forensic Photography

151

Conclusion: Future Living through Death Images

171

Further Resources

175

References179 Index189 vi

LIST OF IMAGES Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image

1. Camera Obscura 2. Flower Wreath 3. Civil War Era Amputation Saw 4. Antique Chair 5. Mourning Photograph of a Small Child 6. Mother and Deceased Child 7. Study of a Dead Child 8. A Harvest of Death 9. The Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter 10. Bodies Awaiting Mass Burial, Belsen Concentration Camp 11. Civil War Embalmer at Work 12. Jesse James Death Card 13. Jesse James in Coffin 14. Jesse James Dressed for Burial 15. The Dalton Gang 16. Bronson Murray 17. Double Exposure of a Female Medium 18. John K. Hallowell and 15 Other Faces 19. Medium Eva C 20. Medium Eva C 21. Spirit Photograph for Stereoscope 22. Stereoscope Viewer 23. Accidental Spirit Photograph 24. Lynching of Frank McManus 25. Anonymous Lynching Victim vii

List of Images

viii

Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image

26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.

Body of James Brown Grave of Jim Morrison 2018 Grave of Jim Morrison 2019 Grave of Elvis Presley Barren tree Clap board Crime scene markers Coffin Camera on Tripod

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A resounding thank you is necessary to all the members of my personal support crew, mentioned below in no particular order. Anne McConnell, who taught me the most important lesson about proof reading that I have ever learned! Michelle Meehan for assisting my early research into dead celebrity figures; Byron Ware for always being proud of me, regardless of the direction in which I end up traveling; and Piotr Jurek for rescuing me when that direction lands me stranded and exhausted at Kings Cross Station, with a broken suitcase. I have also been thankful every day for Elwood, who has sat by my side through endless drafts and tantrums, delivering judgment only via the occasional purr. I am deeply indebted to my brother, Elliott Harris, who was the benefactor for my early fieldwork for this project. Without that assistance, this book would likely never have come together. Finally, Tom, your gentle encouragement, good humor and endless patience are comforts which continue to be appreciated … I do hope you never tire of finding new ways to say, “I told you so.” Beyond all of this, each of you are, and have long been, a blessing in my life. You are loved most for that.

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INTRODUCTION

Image 1. Camera Obscura Source: Shutterstock.

DEATH AND POST-MORTEM PHOTOGRAPHY IN HISTORY

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2

Photography and Death

We were all born to die. — Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene IV. Death has cast its long shadow across the living since the beginning of time. Disinterested in gender, class or economic status, but most importantly, disinterested in our dreams and future plans, death is perhaps the greatest source of life’s anxieties. Yet, we cannot live without it. Death gives us a framework for living life, warns us to take no future time for granted, reminds us to make the most of every moment. It is because of death that we have the ability to love so powerfully and live so vibrantly, and although it may not always be evident, it is death that teaches us the importance of connection and memory. So, if death is responsible for creating much of the depth and richness of the human experience, why do we continue to fear it? A primary reason, one which is intrinsically interwoven with our human fixation on death, is uncertainty. No one has ever survived dying and thus there is no scientific record of what it is like to pass on from this world (highly contested accounts of near-death experiences not withstanding). As such, what we claim to “know” about death is, not actually very much at all. The emotions, coupled with the tangible loss we experience when someone dies (the loss of their physical presence) continue to cause discomfort indiscriminate of age, cultural background or social upbringing. It is this unknowing that fills us with fear, grief and anxiety. These emotions, coupled with the tangible loss, are experienced when someone dies (the loss of their physical presence) and continue to cause a discomfort indiscriminate of age, cultural background or social upbringing. Begrudgingly, we are led to accept that death is the universal unknowable, which has forced humankind to look at other ways of engaging with the concept of

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what it means to die and mourn those who have gone before us. Always these are ways which do not involve acquainting ourselves too closely or directly with death, lest it come for us too early. In response to our morbid curiosities, we have often relinquished individual beliefs or practices in favor of those which reflect the communal whole. Over the course of recorded history, what has become evident is that the relationship which humans share with death, as a concept, a personified figure, a transitional phase or a definitive ending has varied greatly and often in accordance with societal attitudes about the purpose of death and the existence of an afterlife. The traces of these cultural discourses are evident in the artistic output of generations of artists, artisans and everyday citizens. It confronts us in scripture, music, art and literature. Death has played a vital role in our creative and artistic outputs as much as in academic discourse because, until relatively recently, death existed alongside the living in an intimate, if not always comfortable proximity. In western societies of the current era however, death has largely been removed from the public gaze. Like the infirm, elderly or dying, death has been banished from the public view, perhaps because it is so at odds with the consumerist society of which we are all a part. Ours is an era built around the impenetrable notions of youth, beauty and ownership, forever. Little attention is given to how we will die, because too much of our time is demanded in service of convincing other people (as well as ourselves), how marvelous it is to be alive. Rather than hoping for a “Good Death” we are programed to live our “best life,” with no thought of what may come after. Yet, death persists. In recent years, we are beginning to see a resurrection of sorts, with death positive movements and death studies gathering momentum in both the real and virtual landscapes. Their message is an important one, to assure us that there

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Photography and Death

is nothing more certain than the fact that we too, one day, will die. There is nothing to fear, for it is an inevitability, one which if we can accept it, we can control to some degree. Control too plays a large role in how we respond to the idea of death. Now more than ever we believe that it is possible to control dying, either through the use of medical science, healthy eating or a range of mysticisms. Humans have a fantastic propensity for self-delusion. Subconsciously, we inherently know this, of course. Again and again we slowly return to our fixation with the specter of death, always enamored with the idea of glimpsing it from a safe distance. Such glimpses have come in many forms, but it is the photographed image which renders them most faithfully. Photographs capture a moment not as we would like it to be, but as it was. In carrying no bias of subject or object, they can render a scene with complete clarity. Unsurprisingly, the camera has been called the perfect medium for engaging with death and the “authentic” death scene. From the moment of its invention (around 1816), the camera has been used as a tool for memorializing the departed and yet, a large amount of its relationship with death and the dead body remains unconsidered in contemporary conversations about dying. During the period of Victorian era and the Civil War, photographic images played a central role in commemoration, as well as being conduits for the way that society understood and discussed death. After the epic and devastating loss of life experienced during the Civil War and later, World War I, this tether shifted to include the spirit. While many longed to contact loved ones on the other side, it was only the camera that could offer proof of the legitimacy of such encounters. Although romantic in its intent, spirit photography was a short-lived fad and one soon replaced with images of distinctly nefarious intent. The shadow of murder and genocide, evident in the postcard snapshots of lynching victims, and later the barbarity scenes of World War

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II, marked a turning point in how death was framed in images. In exposing atrocity in all its forms, photojournalism has played an important role in educating global society about the terrors of racial discord and war. The adoption of the medium for this purpose has not been without casualties of its own however, for in erasing emotion from its narrative, it has also removed emotion from its audience. We are now so used to the site of atrocity images in television and print media that their relationship to personalized and individual death has become obstructed. It is unsurprising that the implementation of these types of death photograph corresponded with a marked turn away from traditional styles of death photography, which remained absent from social view and public discourse until the 1970s. Upon its rebirth in the artistic realm, death became the medium of documentation for a range of health epidemics such as cancer and AIDS (Linkman, 2012, p. 154). Using the image to record the impact on the body of these diseases, what emerged was a photographic reflection on the lives of these individuals, who had often been stigmatized within society specifically because of their illness. Such stigma recalls Howarth’s (2007, p. 211) discussion of the social death that took place during the Victorian era, in which the ill would gradually remove themselves from the public gaze as a means of maintaining dignity in the face of ill-health and impending death. In the realm of popular entertainment, television and the internet have begun to play a more prominent role in how death and the corpse are visualized, mediated and distributed across global society (Penfold-Mounce, 2010, p. 261). Audiences engage with varying forms of death through drama series that highlight the medical profession, as much as supernatural narratives in which the dead and undead play prominent (and frequently romantic) roles. In both examples, dying, death and the body are central to these narratives.

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Photography and Death

In the case of the latter however, romantic entanglements with the undead rarely address the body as deceased. The resurrection of the soul or essence of the person in these scenarios distracts from the intimate encounters which living characters within the narrative are having with death and the dead body. This changes the way that audiences perceive death by engaging with the desires for self-preservation that are essential to human survival, whilst also pandering to a fascination with immortality. In these examples, death is not representative of finality, and thus, it becomes more palatable. The avoidance of embracing death within a more realistic framework does not always meet the needs of all viewers. Documentaries and docudramas which focus on true crime offer a popular alternative and continue to command a large audience on network and streaming services. These examples will be discussed in more detail later, with attention focused on the use of the photographic image within the narrative and how the juxtaposition of still and moving pictures changes viewer interpretations of death and the death scene. In parallel to television, the ease of access with which we can view images of the dead online, continues to shape modern ideas about death and dying. Photography of any kind of death or death site, particularly those which share a relationship with atrocity, present a range of perceptual frames (Lennon, 2018, p. 587). A Google search can instantaneously conjure images of death in any of its guises, some of which once seen, can never be completely erased from memory. These forms of popular media, whilst sometimes being unpalatable or fantastical in their representations, create a space in which viewers explore human mortality, challenge ideas and phobias about death or delve into the minds of murderers, all while in a safe space (Penfold-Mounce, 2016, p. 3). What these trends prove is how photographic images have become ubiquitous in the current era, so much so that most audi-

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ences fail to register how many they witness from day to day. As a result, we have become numb to photography in many regards, and in our intimacy with the media, have all too frequently neglected to register its morbid history. The purpose of this book is to begin to change this attitude, to wrestle back some of our unconscious witnessing, so that we may once again begin to challenge how we look at death in the image, what it has meant to prior audiences and what it means to us in the contemporary setting. Of interest to this collection is not only purely the content of the image and what it conveys, but also the impact it has on the viewer. In my discussion, there are three audiences to consider. The first is the audience for whom the image was intended. While we may not be able to establish a specific identity for an individual or group of individuals, the style and content of the photograph will indicate its historical context. The second audience is myself, writing about these images as I have seen, interpreted and understood them. The lens I adopt is both tainted by the contemporary society of which I am a part, as much as it is by my own feeling and experience. Finally, the third audience is you, the reader. In every single image discussed herein, this tripartite relationship is present in the three-way discussion which we conduct with the image. The outcome and conclusions we reach will be different, reflecting our own lived experience, knowledge of history, cultural background and relationship with death; yet the discussions themselves are essential to conduct. The act of looking challenges us to notice what it is we are witnessing in an image. As will become evident, no two death images will be alike and even those from the same conflict or time period have the capability to prompt wildly different responses. Throughout each chapter, attention will be given to the historical context of the images under discussion, as well as to the people they depict (where their identity/identities

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Photography and Death

are known). The photograph is always a product of its time (Benjamin, 2016, p. 7; Lennon, 2018, p. 591) and in reviewing it outside of its historical context, the burden is on us as viewers to accept that now is not then, and that we cannot apply the societal standards of the contemporary world onto the past. For cohesion, my conversation will draw on the production purpose of the image and what it reveals about the historical period it represents and how death was discussed during that time. These ideas will then be related to the contemporary period, its attitudes about death, the agency of the body and the role of the viewer in the death narrative. In confronting death images which are opposed to contemporary beliefs, as with those which are an affront to our morals and ethics, is important to understanding the purpose of death photography. In Ways of Seeing, John Berger reminds us that it is sight that comes before words, seeing which allows the individual to establish their place within the world (Berger, 2009, p. 7). Therefore, every time we look at an image, we must realize that what is being portrayed did at one time exist in the world (Young, 2010, p. 86). Each of the images I discuss in this book have one thing in common: death. But it is how they communicate death that is the nucleus of our discussion. John Berger’s work on photography and the image has been influential in assisting me to formulate my approach, as has the work of Roland Barthes. Elements of Berger’s philosophy on the image will be apparent throughout each chapter, with some forming the basis of my own discussions on how death images might be read and interpreted by the contemporary audience. Of note will be instances in which the image draws parallels with specific styles or eras of art composition. In contrast, Barthes (2000, p. 9) dissection of the image, specifically his tripartite analysis of operator, subject and viewer, is central to my discussion. Barthes, much like Walter Benjamin (2016, p. 39) before him, had a preoccupation with the

Introduction: Death and Post-mortem Photography in History

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use of photography in the death scene. Unlike other forms of interpretive narrative, which are often preoccupied with nostalgia and the past, in instances where the subject is deceased, Barthes (2000, p. 21) and Benjamin suggest there is an added sense of fascination with looking which relates to pondering our individual mortality. By his own admission, Berger (2013, p. xi) is indebted to the work of Susan Sontag (who also cites Barthes as one of her main influences), specifically her series of essays which form On Photography. Unlike Berger, Sontag is not a formally trained academic, something which has drawn criticism from other academics within the field (Costello, 2017, p. 1). Regardless of this criticism, her work is used here as an accompaniment to existing academic works but also with the intention of appealing to a wider audience, one which may not necessarily be coming to this study with academia as a motivator. By interweaving her interpretations and responses to the photographic image with those of philosophers such as Benjamin, Barthes and Berger, my aim is to make this collection accessible to academics and general readers alike, without surrendering any of the benefits which either the lay or academic perspective brings. The more recent scholarship of Margaret Schwartz has been influential to elements of this project, specifically in relation to how the dead body can be read as a form of media. Chapters which consider the celebrity body, and, to a lesser extent, the celebrity burial site have been informed by Schwartz, along with the extensive research of Ruth ­Penfold-Mounce and Jacque-Lynn Foltyn. Schwartz has also explored the differing ways in which the lynching image has been used as a form of social commentary and the underlying racial tensions which the trade of these images and their use in the press has represented. In addition to this discussion on lynching, Jacqueline Goldsby’s extensive work

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Photography and Death

(A Spectacular Secret, 2006) is essential to any study focused on the topic, while edited collections such as Thompson, Friend and Glover’s Death and the American South (2017), while not explicitly focused on this act, have added clarity and depth to my understanding of the images and the historical period in which many of them were produced. Online resources such as the Thanatos Archive are invaluable to any inquiry into the death image. The array of death photography here has been integral to establishing the compositional narrative of both post-mortem and spiritualist photographs, while archives from the Library of Congress and the Getty open-access archive were also invaluable to my discussion. Many of these images feature herein and can be found between Chapters 4 and 5. Martin Jolly’s work on Spiritualism and the image (Faces of the Living Dead: The Belief in Spirit Photography, 2006), along with Clement Cheroux’s The Perfect Medium (2005) each bring together a vast array of visual source materials. They have been used here alongside Jeffery Sconce’s Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television (2000) to construct a more detailed narrative around the importance of science and the role of women in any discussion of Spiritualism and its death narratives. Audrey Linkman’s Photography and Death (2012) is crucial to forming a history of how death rituals and their relation to photography have changed over the past 250 years. Her work has been cited extensively in Chapters 1 and 3 as it represents the most comprehensive study in the field of American death photography to have been completed. My goal has always been to construct a study that appeals to research audiences as much as to general readers. As such, I have constructed each chapter to consider a different aspect of the death photograph, to question its purpose in relation to the historical time period in which it was produced, and

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to interrogate how it contributes to the complex ideas society holds about death in the present. In doing so, the collection offers a cohesive narrative around how death exists in celluloid form from a historical, romantic, political, religious, racial, popcultural and scientific perspective. At the core of every example, however, is the notion that the human preoccupation with death is felt profoundly through photography because it is primarily through looking upon images of the dead body that narratives about death and the afterlife are formed (Warren, 2017, p. 122). When looking at the death image, it is never the person captured as they were in life. Instead, we are invariably greeted with the idea of how we wanted them to be, which is influenced by how we choose to remember them (Berger, 2013, p. 480). One thing which all death photography has in common is vanity. These images are all audience focused; the dead may be the focal point, but they serve the needs of the living. Always. This is not to suggest that such vanity is nefarious. In some instances, such as the lynching photograph, it may be – but more often, death photos appeal to the sense of vanity which dwells in each of us, which speaks to the hope that when we die, we will be remembered and missed by the living. Examined chronologically, each chapter considers one of the guises which death photography has worn as an expression of this vanity. My discussion begins with the birth of the photograph and its subsequent use as a means of memorializing the dead. In Chapter 1, focus is given to examples of traditional death imagery. These are images in which the dead are photographed with the express intention of being remembered by the family and loved ones left behind. Highly personal, the death image in this instance was a memento for bereaved loved ones that may have been absent at the time of death. Often taken in the era before embalming was widely practiced, bodies of the dead had to be buried quickly to avoid contaminating the home. When family members had to

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Photography and Death

traverse large geographical areas to participate in mourning rituals, it was often impossible to attend the funeral or wake and thus the mourning image became a conduit through which the grief stricken were able to say farewell. The longevity of these images also made them important to larger family narratives, in which the dead continued alongside the living, their likeness displayed so that their memory was not forgotten. These narratives were often framed by romantic notions of the Good Death and were underpinned by a larger cultural familiarity with early mortality and a yearning for spiritual reunion (Cox, 2003, p. 71; Schimmelman, 2007, p. 230). Death, in these examples, was a romanticized notion, in which the deceased were released of their earthly discomforts to continue eternally in the grace of God. This notation is frequently present in the composition of the image, whilst also being evident in the personal correspondence which accompanied their distribution to family members (Jalland, 1996). The romanticized death narrative, while recurring throughout history, particularly in relation to spiritualism and occult practices, became a point of criticism with the advent of the Civil War (1861–1865). Chapter 2 examines the morphology from romantic notions of death and the afterlife to a view of war and how the mass casualties experienced throughout America led to a vastly different attitude about death and the afterlife. These sentiments would remain present throughout World War I (1914–1918), when images of soldiers were again used to comment on loss of life. In more recent conflicts, particularly the Vietnam War (1955–1975), the same genre of imagery has been more frequently adopted in support of distinct political agendas. At times, this has been to the detriment of the subjects within the photograph. Advancements in the technological capacity of the camera between the Civil War and World War I would also allow for images to be altered, giving photographers and artists of this era a wider scope

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in which to convey ideas about death on the battlefield. With the phenomenal tragedies and drastic loss of life during the Civil War and again in World War I, there was no longer the opportunity or the emotional stamina to create a romantic death narrative around every dead soldier. The first half of the chapter considers this with a specific focus on Alexander Gardner and his images of Gettysburg. In addition to being some of the most well-recognized photographs of the event, Gardner’s work was also widely mass produced. The invention of the stereoscope during this period allowed death to enter the home in three dimensions. Accessing the site of death in this way drastically changed how death narratives were constructed. It was around this time too that embalming was perfected and became an integral part of death rituals. As such, the chapter develops into a discussion on how photographs have been used to promote the process of embalming and how the practices of embalming, in turn, contributed to the composition of death photography. Where battlefield images were focused on the brutal and anonymous deaths of soldiers, embalming provided the opportunity for the dead to return home, even if only captured in a carte de viste. The final section of the chapter conducts a brief consideration of the different photographic techniques which were employed in World War I. While images of the dead were integral to these designs, they are also indicative of an evolution in afterlife narratives, in which the dead retained autonomy. These autonomous souls would become central to the religious beliefs of Spiritualism and are evident in the spirit photograph. Chapter 3 moves on to a more pronounced focus of the afterlife, a theme common to death photography of the early twentieth century. Popular within the Spiritualism movement, many death photographs were highly staged or intricate forgeries, yet their detail and the sentiment of their production are important to consider when examining ideas about

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Photography and Death

death. Scientific intrusion into previously religious cultural ideas would also go on to have a momentous impact on how society would look at death and the afterlife (Sconce, 2000, p. 10). Although scientific breakthroughs, particularly in the field of medicine, were doing a great deal to dispel previous superstitions about dying, the need for death narratives and mementoes remained. These, unlike their post-mortem predecessors discussed in Chapter 1, were about the living and their search for acceptance and closure (Kaplan, 2003, p. 19). Through social movements such as Spiritualism, the death image became tangible proof that there was a life beyond this one and that the dead mourned the living as much as we mourned for them (Natale, 2019, pp. 34–35). Mourning is not the only purpose for death photography. While this has undoubtedly always been the motivation behind the specific genre of image discussed in earlier chapters, the social turn toward engaging with death photographs purely for the purpose of enjoyment becomes more prevalent in later examples. It is nowhere better personified than in images of atrocity and murder. Chapter 4 looks explicitly at the lynching image. Rather than purely an assessment of how the lynching photograph or postcard can be read as a historic text, my interest here is to consider how it was disseminated as a macabre kind of collectable item and what this practice tells modern audiences about the divorce of death from the objectified body. In these examples, unlike those in the previous chapter, the corpse becomes a symbol for the social and cultural interests of the living, while the death and afterlives of the dead are removed from the conversation that these images project. Unlike previous examples, this derivative of the death image speaks explicitly to the sense of control which humans attempt to exercise over death, one which is played out in causing the deaths of others. When viewed in relation to the violent periods of war which preceded

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the wide spread dissemination of lynching images, and those which became a precursor to World War II atrocity photographs, it is unsurprising that images of this era began the trend of engaging with death in this way. In the present, it is still possible to see ideas of control and ownership present in death imagery, albeit in different scenarios. Chapters 5 and 6 develop this idea by prompting a consideration of what the image means within the context of contemporary society and its views on death, the agency of the body and ownership over it (Haward, 2010, p. 1). The sense of ownership which the community feels over a deceased body is interesting when we view it in relation to the celebrity figure. In Chapter 5, I apply this idea to the photograph of the celebrity corpse, offering an assessment of how death images have been used in a variety of contexts and the cultural narrative which these images curate. As case studies, I use the death scene photographs of John Belushi and Chris Farley, the autopsy photographs of John Lennon and Tupac Shakur, and the grave side photographs of Elvis Presley and Jim M ­ orrison. In the case of the latter, the body is absent from view, yet the burial site acts as a substitute for the ownership which fans have projected on the celebrity image. In looking at the various ways that the image of the celebrity corpse is circulated, we begin to understand the role of the body in the composition of contemporary death narratives. This relationship has a close connection to fandom, while also being indicative of the darker emotions present when beloved figures die (Foltyn, 2008, pp. 156–157). In these examples, brutal death often attracts more public interest than natural death or death from illness. Fans demand to see images of the body in its death state, even feeling as though it is their entitlement (Foltyn, 2016, p. 249). Haward (2010, p. 3) has described the world as a “mediated crime fest” in which fiction and non-fiction accounts and representations of crime are constantly overlapping.

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Chapter 6 considers the developing field of crime scene photography and the role it plays in how death is not only determined but also how the story of crime and death are narrated to audiences through different genres and forms of media. In many dramatic or serialized drama examples, this narrative will center on the idea of the corpse as its own form of testimony – a definitive piece of evidence with a story to tell (Crossland, 2018, p. 624). In reality, this can be somewhat different. Of interest to my assessment is the way in which forensic death images feed the enduring fascination which humankind has with its own mortality, specifically when it is at odds with the moral standards which society deems to be acceptable. The examination of forensic photography also considers the powerful role which television and true-crime documentaries have played in how contemporary audiences understand and view the dead. In doing so, my discussion of the image adopts the concept that popular culture and its associated visual media create a safe space for audiences to relate to death (Penfold-Mounce, 2016, p. 30) in its various forms and in a safe (and usually private) space. In history, as in contemporary society, there are a lot of different variations on death photography. Regrettably, it is not possible to consider every genre of death photograph within this volume and careful consideration has been made around which examples provide comprehensive source material, enough to begin the conversation which needs to take place around death photography. This collection has been drawn together in aid of the examination of the different roles which the death and post-mortem photograph have held within the social and cultural sphere. While it is by no means an exhaustive study, it acts as the initial step in a larger dialog, one in which we do not shy away from looking at death but r­ efocus the living gaze on a consideration and confrontation of

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our own mortality. As the death-positive movement gains momentum around the world, particularly in the United States, and writers on death studies such as Caitlyn Dougherty command a quasi-celebrity status, it is now more important than ever that academics shift their focus toward a more multidisciplinary consideration of death and the power of the death image in the social idea of what it means to die. While I have tried to include a rich selection of death images which represent each of the individual chapters within this book, there are many that had to be omitted both for length and because of access to printing rights. You will find at the end of this book an appendix of all the images I have discussed. For those not included in the photographic section of the book, a quick search online will bring you right to them. The benefit of experiencing the death image through a medium like this is that you may do so one-to-one and in your own time. As you read this book and encounter these images, I hope you adopt the spirit of self-reflection in considering how each of the photographs speak to you. As the discussion you will have with these images takes place in the privacy of these pages as opposed to a public forum such as the classroom, museum or gallery setting, there is no risk of judgment or criticism. You are not obligated to curate your emotions for the benefit of those around you, nor in accordance with what is considered a socially acceptable response to the content. As a final word of caution, several chapters within this collection deal with subject matter that can be confrontational. Thus, I caution readers that they may be confronted with images that are deeply unsettling and disturbing. It is not my intention to cause distress to any reader, however I do feel it is important that we fully realize the cultural and historical legacy to which we are all recipients – even when that is unpleasant and, at times, a source of shame. Without looking to the past to educate ourselves, we risk repeating the same mistakes in the future.

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CHAPTER 1 ROMANCE

Image 2. Flower Wreath Source: Shutterstock.

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John Berger (2013, p. 20) suggests that the most popular use for the photograph is as a memento of the absent. When considering the death image, it is not difficult to see where this sentiment rings true, for no other style of image encapsulates longing so specifically. There is nothing we long for more than what we can no longer hold and no absence more pronounced than that in which the cause of separation is death. If those we love are far away from us geographically, they at least retain their ability for correspondence. It is that correspondence through which we convey care and establish certainty about our shared relationship. When this avenue is removed from us by death, it does not remove our need to feel connected to those we love. If anything, death demands that we articulate emotion with more clarity, as if that were necessary to the departed knowing how profoundly they are missed. Mourning is a customary means for conveying continued care after the death of a loved one. We mourn not only for their absence but also for ourselves. It is the living who suffer the absence of the dead and seek to fill it with mementoes of relationships halted by the inevitability of mortality. The photograph is a tangible representation of that which is absent. The invention of photography played a vital role in memorializing as much as it did in the construction of mourning narratives and death rituals. What imbues the image with significance when viewed within the context of mourning is that it captures a complete likeness of the person who is now absent. Though looking upon this likeness can be painful, having it ensures that we will not succumb to the fogginess of memory, that we will maintain an avenue of connection with the person that has been, even though they are now no longer. Roland Barthes discusses this concept in his study on photography, Camera Lucidia (2000[1981]). Although his discussion considers the power of images from quite a broad spectrum,

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Barthes is at his most vulnerable and honest analysis of their power when talking about the relationship he shares with his collection of photographs of his deceased mother. He describes returning to her pictures in an attempt to find her, as though he might uncover something about her personality, her past, which was previously unknown to him and, in doing so, might understand her better despite the void which death has placed between them (Barthes, 2000, pp. 65, 67, 99–100). For Barthes, every photograph is symbolic of death. It is proof that because we have lived, we will all one-day die (Barthes, 2000, p.73). The photographs mark the passage of her life before and after his birth, they provide him an insight into who she had been before he knew her, whilst acting as conduit through which he can still know her now that she is gone. What becomes evident throughout this narrative, is that in Barthes assessment the photograph has given a new dimension to the relationship he shares with his mother. Although she has succumbed to inevitable death, through the image she can remain present. Still, this is not an easy presence, it is one steeped in mourning, uncertainty and unknowing. These sentiments are indicative of the relationships which humans continue to have with images of the dead. This chapter grounds itself in the adoption of this aspect of Barthes scholarship, entwining it with similar perspectives that John Berger has discussed in his works. Unlike the following chapters, which will embrace the same approach however, this chapter looks most closely at the intimate link between the beloved dead and the death image. When using the term “beloved dead” I am referring specifically to lost loved ones. These are individuals who, while they may be unknown to contemporary viewers of the image, were known and loved by family members at the time the image was created. This sense of love is conveyed through the appearance of the body

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within the image (the care which has been shown to its presentation) along with the way the image is constructed. These are photographs of sentimentality and mourning, which often formed an outlet for emotions which were not allowed to be expressed publicly (Blood & Cacciatore, 2014, p. 225; Hilliker, 2006, p. 247). Regardless of who they portray, it is this composition which conveys their sentiment and regardless of the passage of time, it is sentiment which continues to speak to a global audience. The image is a poignant reminder of mortality, for in representing death, the photograph represents the locus of human uncertainties. Uncertainty for the living because they have no means of possessing that which they love, no evidence of the progress of the soul from one life into the next, and no proof that autonomy or emotion are eternal – that the bonds we created with our loved ones in life transcend beyond our last breath. For the dead, the image represents uncertainty related to memory, challenging how the individual life can be remembered based on what tangible proof remains after life has ended. To account for this uncertainty, memorial images frequently romanticize rather than challenge the idea of dying. In casting the dead in a romantic light, the living become distracted from the inevitability of decay, whilst being allowed the indulgence of afterlife reunion narratives. Regardless of the era or mode of their production, any image of the deceased is a very specific kind of text. It represents the triple narrative of a relationship lived and living (one which continues beyond the mortality of one party), as a historical proof of life (this person did live), and as a tangible locus of absence (this person is no longer). Although the visage that greets us in the post-mortem image will invariably be of the other, in looking at it we are also always confronted with the certainty of our death. More often than not, we cannot look away.

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My discussion of variations on the death image will be divided into three sections. The first provides a brief overview of the history of death narratives and how these pertain to the moment of death and subsequent capturing of human likeness. I consider examples which capture the subject immediately prior to death as well as in the days following. The former, while not depicting death, clearly infer that its arrival is immanent and as such form the foundation for how the memorial narrative for the individual is related to the concept of the Good Death. Following this will be a discussion of post-mortem photographs which depict the deceased in a way that seeks to imitate life. In these examples, bodies are posed as though sleeping or incorporate living members of the family into the image to create a death scene. In some instances, this staging will seek to replicate life, whilst in others the living are more clearly engaged in mourning rituals. The final section looks at death photography in which the body is displayed within the casket. In these examples, the dead appear both as solitary figures as well as alongside living mourners. They differ from the other styles of death image in that there is no masking of the fact that death has taken place. There is a clear sense of documentation in these images, with mourning secondary to confirmation of care: care of the body and care for the observance of other visual mourning rituals (Linkman, 2012, p. 16).

1.1 ALTERNATIVES TO PRE- AND POST-MORTEM PORTRAITURE One of the earliest attempts to render an artistic likeness of the deceased was the posthumous portrait. These were very popular throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, particularly in between 1810 and 1860 (Nelson, 2016), although

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the cost of their production limited availability to the higher social classes (Lightfoot, 2019, p. 152; Ruby, 1989, p. 5). Such examples vary wildly in style and design, their success relying largely on the competency and vision of a specific artist. While it was not always the intent of the portrait to capture the deceased in the moment of death, each design bore clear symbology which conveyed death as its message. Where the subject was a child (which is the case in the overwhelming majority of surviving examples) these symbols (over turned shoes, upside down birds) allowed for the subject to be captured as they had been, whilst conveying the sentiment of death in way less confrontational to the viewer than later portraits would often be (Lightfoot, 2019, p. 153; Schimmelman, 2007, p. 227). This style also allowed for the inclusion of multiple family members within the image and cast the deceased in scenes or places which comprised elements of life rather than factually accurate settings. In some later examples of death photography, grieving families can be seen holding the portrait of a deceased loved one (Linkman, 2012, p. 134; Nelson, 2016), demonstrating how valuable these were to family narratives and the importance of including absent family members in subsequent periods of grief. Owing to the time and complexity of large-scale artistic renderings, miniature portraits of the deceased also came to provide a means of commemorating loved ones, whilst being easy to carry and conceal during the grieving process. In these examples, it is commonly only the face and shoulders of the subject which is captured in the image and, as with most painted portraits of the era, the prominent or more favorable features of the individual are highlighted above those which are less desirable or have been tainted by long-term illness. Even in instances where the portrait is capturing death, the deceased is always shown to look peaceful and without blemish.

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A primary problem faced by artists of the era was that the subject of the pre-death or death portrait risked passing away or deteriorating before the image was completed. This made these forms of commission undesirable for many working within the field (Linkman, 2006, p. 319). In other examples, the posing of the deceased body and its rendering within the work gave the overall composition an uneasy quality. While some artists were comfortable working with a recently deceased body, retaining the ability to recapture the vitality of life, for others the death of the subject was an obstacle difficult to overcome. In either case, the undeniable progress of nature and the natural decomposition of the corpse was a central factor to their work. Without the technology of embalming, the body of the deceased had a limited shelf life. Within 24 hours, it was thought that the corpse began to lose the essence of life. After 48, the deterioration was evident (Linkman, 2012, p. 25). While sketches of the deceased could be used to creature a blueprint from which more detailed works could develop, these could not capture a true likeness of the individual. The result was always a gap between the likeness that had been and the image which had been immortalized. The invention of the camera and the consequent accessibility of photographic images drastically changed the way in which the living honored and remember their dead. As with many styles of art, the outcome of the portrait was reliant not just on the skill of the artist, but the situation as they chose to interpret it. In contrast, the camera presented the opportunity to preserve the deceased exactly as they had been at the moment of passing. Depending on the cause of death, this had the ability to complicate the task and yet, it is thought that for many the honesty of the representation was vital to accepting the death (Jalland, 1996, p. 289). Even instances where illness was evident in the body, there were a range of options to conceal much that was unpleasing.

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In later years, the photographic process was refined and improved upon, giving operators more artistic license. Changes to photographic negatives also allowed for multiple images to be produced from a single plate, and for a relatively low cost. When we consider the amount of mourning ephemera that was collected during the period, it is not difficult to imagine where this would have been beneficial to both the photographer and the deceased. For the itinerant photographer being able to produce multiple images ensured revenue, which was not only essential to the continuance of their business but also made the grim task of photographing the subject more appealing. For families, death images were important records, which would be distributed to several relatives (Henkin, 2019, p. 50; Lightfoot, 2019, p. 155). While there may not have been the financial means or capability to ensure multiple reproductions of an artwork, the camera ensured that an adequate number of images could be distributed among different family members. In instances where the only photograph of a person was their post-mortem photograph, this distribution played a vital role in ensuring the memory of the deceased within a larger family narrative – sometimes expanding across continents and involving family members whom the deceased had never known in life (Schimmelman, 2007, p. 231). Surviving examples of the daguerreotype suggest that death images of children were the most popular use for this technology (Cadwaller, 2008, p. 13, Hilliker, 2006, p. 247).1 The overwhelming sentiment which all post-mortem portraits convey is that of the Good Death.

1.2 THE GOOD DEATH At a time where medical care was in its infancy and the spread of disease was rampant, dying was an ever-present feature of life.

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Similarly, nursing home environments and hospice did not exist as they do today and thus, out of necessity, death was also an intimate fixture within the family home. In many instances, the dying process would commence long before the moment of clinical death took place (Elias, 1985, p. 29). In cases where prolonged illness was to be the cause of death, the afflicted individual began a social death in preparation for their physical one. The result of retiring from public life meant that the immanence of death was confined to the family home and it is here where death narratives played the most prominent role (Kellehear, 2009, p. 135; Lightfoot, 2019, p. 150). To soften the emotional toll of death on friends and family members that not only cared for the dying but also survived them, narratives arose to address the passage of the soul from mortality into the afterlife. Heavily influenced in many cases by religious ideas of mortality, the concept of the Good Death became integral to how death was accepted, and grief processed by surviving family members. It played close attention to the idea of an individuals’ need to depart from life in a way that saw them prepared for reunion with God. Rather than being a cause for enduring sadness, the living were encouraged to take joy from this reconciliation. An important part of preparation for this ascension of the soul was the atonement for past transgression (which we continue to see in the reading of Last Rites) and in the earthly preparations which were undertaken by family in service of the dying. This may include the preparations of the death bed and burial garments, along with ensuring that upon death the body of the deceased was cleaned and groomed in preparation for burial. As cremation was largely frowned upon, a large amount of emphasis was placed on the presentation of the body for burial. This was linked to the popular belief of bodily resurrection, which states that upon the return of Christ the faithful will be raised back to life in their earthly bodies for

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the final judgment (Lightfoot, 2019, p. 150; Linkman, 2012, p. 14). With this literal belief as a motivator, it was important to ensure that the dead were well prepared for this day by being groomed and dressed in their finest attire. The Good Death narrative, while not the motivation for the post-mortem photograph, was integral to the composition of many of the images produced by post-mortem photographers. As Philippe Aries highlights in his seminal study The Hour of Our Death (1981, p. 449), in its earliest incarnations, beyond a return to God, the Good Death did not extend to the consideration of an afterlife of the departed. The progress of the soul beyond mortality was not an object of consideration for the living, whose focus was instead primarily linked only to their memory of that person. It was remembering that became important to family identity and to forming a social history of the family unit. In this sense, the death image acts as the final reminder of a loved one and it is used to maintain connections which relate specifically to a past relationship. It was not until later, particularly during the rise of spiritualism, that more romantic attitudes about the continuance of the soul began to evolve. In these, the afterlife presented an opportunity for the reunion between family and loved ones. So too, the idea of eternal youth and beauty were prominent fixtures, as was the notion that the afterlife existed in a kind of parallel to this one. In this plane of existence, the souls of the departed enacted similar behaviors to the living, including falling in love with other spirits. As such, it became important to retain continuing relationships, in which the dead were not only remembered, but also conducted an active spirit life. In this realm, they were not only aware of their departed loved ones but retained an emotional connection to them. These parallel narratives would be rejoined in eternity, when all souls would be reunited with their loved ones and family members.

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For modern audiences in particular, the idea of the Good Death is integral to understanding the narrative which the death photograph conveys. In much the same way as a written narrative, the image contained a range of visual cues which worked with the cultural death beliefs of the time, which are now read alongside death narrative of the present. At times what these suggested seems quite strange in comparison to contemporary belief. Still, the semiotics of the image function to construct a story in which the Good Death was a peaceful slumber, in which the deceased awaited the day of resurrection and their heavenly ascension. This was achieved using light and shade, positioning the body in certain ways and by clothing it in specific attire. In some instances, props would also convey these sentiments, although these were limited to ensure that the focus of the viewer was not drawn away from the deceased, who must be the focal point of the image (Fernandez, 2011, pp. 348–350). The following sections address some of the unique attributes found within the death image.

1.3 COMPOSITION OF THE DEATH AND NEAR-DEATH IMAGE How the body of the deceased or nearly deceased is displayed within the image will vary depending on the age of the subject and the affluence of the family. In most instances, adults are photographed in bed (Schimmelman, 2007, p. 226). Linens will always be plain white, sometimes with lace adornments. In many accounts, adornments were done within the home by female family members (Linkman, 2012, p. 15) who were the primary care givers at the end of life and immediately after death. The use of fine linens is a mark of respect and in many instances such linens were purchased specifically in anticipation of death. They could be reused for multiple

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f­ amily members, but the utmost care was always shown in the presentation of the bed or bedroom. Clothing too would be purchased or put aside in anticipation of the occasion. This remains customary in contemporary society, when family members are asked to select an outfit in which a deceased relative is to be buried. Although it is becoming more common for the deceased to be interred in their “favorite” outfit, in previous eras, the best attire the individual owned was designated for burial. In several examples, the deceased are shown fully clothed (even wearing shoes) despite being posed in bed. The deceased is always posed as if they are sleeping, with eyes and mouth fixed shut. Long-illness can also sometimes be determined by the adoption of sleeping attire (which is again always white). Bonnets can be used to cover hair loss in the case of illness, though hats and headwear are less common in other examples. Similarly, if the body has suffered from the effects of long-illness, linen will be tucked up to the chin, so that only the facial features are visible. In instances where deterioration is particularly evident, flowers appear around the face, which creates contrast with the gaunt appearance. In all examples, the deceased has been bathed and their hair fixed in the appropriate style of period. Due to the monochromatic and sepia tone of most of these examples, it is difficult to determine how much make up has been applied to the face. Flowers were used to mask the scent of the body, although it is likely that strong soaps and perfumes would also have been employed. This recalls death traditions that reach back into antiquity. In these examples, the perfuming of the body not only serves to mask the smell of decomposition but also to pay respect in its demonstration of care. Flowers and perfumes were also used for the benefit of the photographer. Long exposure times, lack of air-conditioning and the general process of time were all contributing factors to decay (Lightfoot, 2019, p. 153). Being in session with a

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body for several hours while photographs were posed and taken would have been incredibly confronting and at times, difficult, even for seasoned professionals. Similarly, in instances where the body was posed upright or in a way that recalled life, there was the need for the photographer to grapple with the corpse, twisting joints and securing them so that the image could be processed. There exists a range of accounts from photographers who did not like photographing the dead specifically because of these issues. From an aesthetic perspective, soft lighting was adopted as a means of masking the early stages of decay and could also obscure the type of gaunt features which one might expect after death from a prolonged illness. In much the same way as it is used in photography today, soft lighting also invokes the concept of a dream-like or romantic state. The use of muslin fabrics and drapery accentuated this effect. The intimate setting of the home, specifically the bedroom or the garden, was also important to creating a sense of peace. The garden particularly recalls the idea of a return to nature or paradise, which itself has strong Biblical connotations. In other examples where the body has been photographed in a studio, it is clear that the background has been made to appear as if the subject is in the home. Where the deceased is a child, the body is commonly displayed within the cot or is laid out specifically for the photograph (Schimmelman, 2007, p. 226; Fernandez, 2011, p. 347). It is rare to find near-death images of small children, possibly because death could be the sudden conclusion to a short-illness or because of a lack of willingness to accept that a young child was soon to die. Compositions frequently adopt the use of flowers and, in some instances a toy will be included. The symbols which are evident in a large number of child focused death portraiture are relative to death

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and to childhood rather than being indicative of the specific character of a lost child. For instance, a common motif was children’s shoes and toys, which would feature in the image, often overturned or resting on their side. The choice of toy (or shoe) was not relative to a favorite item belonging to the child, but rather symbolic of the fact that the life of the child had been cut short. We might read it as the sound of the home falling silent as the boisterous footsteps of the child are no longer heard and neither are the sounds of play. In other quite common examples, a parent (usually the mother) can feature nursing the infant (Gutierrez, 2015, p. 52). In many of these, the face of the child retains much of its lifelike form and confirmation of death can only be drawn from the expression and attire of the parents within the image. In examples where one or both parties is visible, mourning attire will be worn by the parents, whilst the person holding the child is usually gazing down over the body as the other parent looks away from the camera. In other examples, the parent is draped with a black cloth to obscure their presence in the image. In these examples, children are again posed to appear as if in a state of natural slumber. At times, the hands of the parent remain visible, giving the image a disjointed appearance. It was also not uncommon for parents to be cropped out of the image once it had been framed. The small ornate photo frames in which many of these examples are still housed could be sized to show only a fraction of the larger image. Cropping is commonly used to display only the face and shoulders of the deceased.

1.4 THE IMITATION OF LIFE The traditional death photograph, in which the deceased is posed as though reclining in sleep is usually devoid of

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­ ossessions or decoration which may draw the eye away p from the subject (Linkman, 2012, p. 42). In the case of life imitation photographs, props can be employed to mask the post-mortem status of the subject. In some instances, siblings or entire families will be featured alongside a deceased relative. In these portraits, the deceased will be posed as if they were alive (eyes will be opened), sometimes standing alongside living relatives or seated in a chair. This feat is accomplished with the use of a stand and clamps, which held the deceased in place. In a range of examples, the stand will be visible within the image, at the feet of the subject. Discoloration of the hands is also indicative of a subject being deceased. Siblings will congregate around the deceased child, either holding its hand, touching it or looking down upon its apparently sleeping form. In some rare examples, the deceased will have their head resting upon the shoulder or knee of a sibling. In most examples, it is the deceased individual who is the central point of the image, recalling the idea that death is the locus of all grief. Considering the age of some of the children seen in these images and their apparent calm, it can only be concluded that they felt more comfortable in the presence of death than most adults in the present day. Staging of the image not only took place on account of esthetics, but also as proof of how much love and care have been shown to the deceased in their preparation for burial. This was of amplified importance in examples where photographs included large family groups and/or in which the images were to be sent to relatives abroad, who were not able to participate in mourning procedures (Linkman, 2012, pp. 90–93). The inclusion of living and dead children within the image is important for establishing a family line and in a few surviving examples children appear to be posed in succession according to their age. When we consider that some relatives may never have seen or met a young child before it died, having the body

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posed in this way was a powerful reminder of their existence as an individual, but also within the family unit. For very young children, along with siblings that may be born after the fact, this variety of posthumous imaging would help them to retain memories of deceased siblings as they matured. Although they may not remember the deceased as they had been in life, the photograph was proof that a relationship had once been present. For children born later, it was important to understanding their place within the family and sibling unit. As surviving children aged, their narratives around the deceased would incorporate the sense of self which was reveled within the shared image.

1.5 POST-MORTEM COFFIN IMAGES Post-mortem images which incorporate the coffin into the design may differ in the fact that coffins were far more simplistic, than other props, but their decoration was as individual as the custom order caskets that are available today. From a socio-cultural perspective, the coffin or casket was a strong indication of the life and economic status of the individual (Linkman, 2012, p. 31). At present, one need only look at the funeral industry to note that this continues to be true. Although they may now be mass produced instead of made to size, and while they frequently come as part of a “funeral package” coffins are increasingly designed in a wide array of styles. These are chosen both in accordance with the funerary budget of the deceased and their family, but also relative to the personality of the deceased. As open-casket funerals are not as popular as they once were, in many instances the casket is the final visual reminder we have of a deceased loved one. As such, it presents a sense of who that person was – becoming the ultimate memorial symbol, the miniaturized tomb in which they are interred.

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Unlike the posed image of a child, seemingly asleep in the arms of a parent, death images which incorporate the coffin are not masquerading as anything other than images of death. These variations were more common to American practice than European. In Britain, the use of photography to commemorate death was viewed quiet differently and as a result, the number of images which exist is less extensive than American variants (Linkman, 2012, p. 130; Ruby, 1989, p. 4). Coffin images went in and out of fashion, depending on the geographical location of the deceased and the social attitudes about death at the time, becoming more common after the turn of the century (Ruby, 1995, p. 78). Although the coffin image avoids much of the romantic nature of those which depict a dream-like state, in most instances they too retain a dignified beauty. In relation to social hierarchy, the composition of the image can also be telling. The mourning attire displayed spoke to the wealth and status of the departed, whilst the design of the attire itself could also be read as an indicator of family relationships with the deceased. In so far as where family members are included with the dead, where the living are placed in relation to the body makes a comment on the family ties and also the status of the living in relation to the dead. As Linkman (2012, p. 137) describes, in some American examples, there are large family groups featured alongside the deceased in coffin images. In these examples, those closest to the body retain a more formal status than those featured to the back and side of the deceased. There does not appear to be a blanket formality around the structure of these images, where the individual is placed remains largely outside the capabilities of modern research. In some rare examples, coffin images will show multiple members of a family within the same coffin. One example of this is the death image of the Keller family, who died in

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New York in 1894 (Thanatos Archive, 2015, p. 132). In this instance, the coffin contains the bodies of husband and wife, along with their small child. What makes this an interesting case is that it was the wife who was responsible for murdering her husband and child (due to his infidelity) and then taking her own life. Owing to the tragic circumstances of their demise, the three are interred together, with the accompanying image being highly suggestive of a loving family reunion in death.

1.6. COUNTER NARRATIVES The flip side to images which were designed to promote the concept of the Good Death are those which act as a proof of death. These examples usually captured the slain body of criminal figures and were an effective means of warning audiences of the repercussions of living a criminal life. In societies like the Old West, visual indicators like the death photograph could transcend language and literacy barriers. In as much, the publication and dissemination of the slain criminal body was a tool through which law enforcement might indicate the consequences for criminal behavior. As the death photographs of Jesse James or the Dalton Gang (see images section) illustrate, in these types of portrait the deceased is shown little of the same care afforded to law abiding members of society. James is unique in that he has been bathed and dressed in nicer clothing, but his coffin remains unadorned with any of the trimmings one would expect to find, and neither are there any flowers surrounding him. Instead, he is ringed by officials, who pose alongside the body as if to prove that it is in fact a deceased outlaw. In other instances, the deceased bodies of fugitives and outlaws are photographed where they have fallen and remain dressed in

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the clothing in which they died. The evidence of their wounds remains clear, along with the dirt and grime which cling to their corpse. The lack of care and compassion shown to these individuals, even in death, is indicative of the fact that they were not part of regular society.

1.7. OTHER USES FOR DEATH PHOTOGRAPHY The first registered American patent to fit a daguerreotype portrait to a headstone, came in March 1851 (Linkman, 2012, p. 119). Although the practice of including images of the deceased within grave artwork was not widespread at this time, it is evidence of the fact that in some geographical settings, memorialization of the dead at the site of burial was considered important to the grief process as a whole. In much the same fashion as it is used today, having a referent image of the deceased can assist with forming a connection to the site of their interment. For visitors to the grave, this assists with keeping a lifelike image of the person in mind when communicating during visitation, while for passers-by, sighting the image of the deceased can both attract attention and establish immediate interest into who the deceased had been. Linkman concludes that the tradition might have been inherited from European immigrants, as the practice of including pictures at interment sites was popular among Italian Americans. Unlike standard death portraits however, these images captured the deceased during joyous moments of life, important events such as confirmation, first communion, graduation or wedding celebrations (Linkman, 2012, p. 121). With the exception of the graduation ceremony, these moments all have a religious significance which underlies their importance as a social rite of passage. A less common historic practice was seen with bereaved loved ones depositing images of themselves at the burial site

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of the deceased (Linkman, 2012, p. 125). Evidence of such examples is difficult to locate because unlike images which were interred within a stone or wooden marker, these were at the mercy of the elements. While it is difficult to establish the precise motivation for this tradition we can conclude that the images were both tokens of love and affection for the deceased (perhaps to insinuate that the subject of the image grieved their passing) as well as being a visual indicator of the role of the subject as mourner at the actual site of the burial. It is also possible that images placed at the grave were representations of people that may not have been able to attend the burial in person, in which case they stood as proof of the idea that although absent in body, the subject of the image had been there in spirit. If we turn to modern rituals, a similar version of the practice is more common. This involves family members and friends leaving tokens in the coffin of a loved one. These can include pictures or letters and, at times, are invited to be left from members of the family. Press coverage of traumatic events will often demonstrate this practice. In the case of sudden death, the practice provides the grief stricken with the opportunity to say goodbye to the deceased as well as to leave a part of themselves with the departed. Even in a modern context, these gestures of care are symbolic of the belief that the individual is entitled to a Good Death.

1.8. CONCLUSION While contemporary audiences may find post-mortem images difficult to look at, perhaps even slightly unsettling, they retain a beauty which cannot be denied. They exist in the present as an enduring reminder of how closely the living once held their memoires of the dead, reminding us of the importance

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of maintaining memory not only for the benefit of personal history but as part of the grief process. In relation to afterlife narratives, each example suggests that the deceased is at peace, that they have transcended the hardships of their mortality, leaving a beautiful death image as a reflection of the eternal beauty in which they now reside. These are the dead as we most want to remember them and as reflections of how we too, would hope to be remembered. It is in this beauty that post-mortem photographs are at odds with most other genres of death image. As we will see in the following chapters, social upheaval and death on an almost unimaginable scale would each play their role in shifting social attitudes about death and the formation of personal narratives among family members. In the next chapter, I turn my gaze towards battlefield photography from the American Civil War, with a view to the role these images had not only in establishing the field of ­photojournalism but in changing the way that death narratives were told and to the social constructs of the afterlife. What these images demonstrate is the idea of anonymous death, in which the act of mourning is not related to specific individuals but relates to the communal loss of a country.

NOTE 1.  While this is an interesting prospect, it behooves us to consider that perhaps it was sentimental attachment to mourning ephemera such as post-mortem daguerreotypes, rather than popularity or abundance of images explicitly focused on children, that ensured their survival above those depicting people and events of the every day. It is impossible to determine how many death images were once in existence and how frequently these were distributed as cabinet cards or in lieu of funerary cards.

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CHAPTER 2 ANONYMITY

Image 3. Civil War Era Amputation Saw Source: Shutterstock.

WAR PHOTOGRAPHY Staged post-mortem portraits, such as those described in the previous chapter, served the singular purpose of remembrance. This form of remembrance was generally limited to a specific individual and of most relevance to their family and friendship circle. In preserving the deceased as close to lifelike as was achievable, the photograph was a strong tool in communicating that the person had lived, that they had experienced a Good Death and that their earthly body had been loved and cared for in the transition from death to interment. These images were also aides for a focused mourning, in which they represented a tangible link to the deceased, who was physically absent. It is this specificity of character which makes them unique examples of mourning ephemera. For modern viewers, we will likely not recognize the person whom the 41

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image depicts, but we understand that they were loved and missed, that grief was attached to their singular absence. The advent of the Civil War would change the way that Americans understood death and, in turn, would reshape their narratives about the departed. A primary motivator behind this social shift was the sheer scale of death that would take place on battlefields across the country (Stapp, 1980, p. 197). This was a loss of life so grand, so tragic, that there were neither the time nor the means to document and mourn every fallen solider in a way that was befitting of previous death customs. Of course, at the onset of the conflict few could have understood just how drastically it would reshape the national identity. Parent’s whose sons signed up dutifully may have felt quite differently about the patriotism of their children had they conceptualized the staggering odds against their return from battle. It is important to remember that these were not only individual deaths, but in many instances would signify the end of a family line. Such was the loss of life that for many parents, an entire generation and thus, the possibility of a continuing family narrative, was sacrificed in conflict. So too, for many families, not only would there not be any opportunity to grieve for the loss of their husbands, fathers or sons, but there would be scare if any confirmation as to the exact circumstances of their death. During large scale battles, such as Gettysburg, where there were thousands of fatalities, multiple thousands missing and tens of thousands injured, bodily remains were almost certainly not returned for interment. In many cases the how, when and where of death remained unknown, along with the final resting place of the body. What this demonstrates is an involuntary shift from highly personalized death to anonymous death. Death of this scale became the the shared loss of

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the entire country. With a list of casualties so profound, there was little option for the bereaved other than to adopt a sense of communal mourning but even this was difficult to articulate until the intervention of the photograph. As this chapter will examine, the introduction of battlefield images would alter the way in which war narratives were told, by shining a light on the realities of battle. In capturing scenes from the battlefield, audiences of these images were unable to avoid the true horror of war and the epic toll which it took on human life. As I will discuss, by focusing not on the individual but the communal body, Civil War images played a central role in reconfiguring the way in which war death was, and still is, discussed and absorbed by society. The opening of the chapter will look at some examples of well-known images from the Civil War period. Drawing heavily on the iconic work and documented experiences of Alexander Gardner, the discussion will consider the role of composition in narrative construction and the importance of the image as a communicative tool. In these images, there is none of the beauty and grace of the embalmed corpse, no concept of peaceful rest, even the concept of nobility in death is difficult to negotiate. Audiences are confronted with the sight of young men, slumped into the mud, their bodies often having been pillaged for shoes, coats or useful weapons before being left where they had fallen. In some of the most wellremembered examples these bodies are bloated and decaying, such is the scale of the loss that they cannot be buried before the onset of putrefaction. Until this moment, images like these had rarely been seen and certainly not by a national audience. This discussion leads into a brief consideration of later ­conflict images and how photographers active during World War I, World War II and later conflicts captured scenes of death during times of war. What this discussion will demonstrate is the important role which Civil War death photography played

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in the development of photojournalism and the aim of capturing the “truth” of a scene. This was not always a factual truth as much as it sought to represent the emotional truth and toll of conflict on the soldier. In aide of this later point, my assessment will also include later developments in photographic technique, which allowed photographers to blend multiple images into a single scene, with the specific purpose of conveying narrative sentiment to their audiences. The second portion of the chapter will then examine a very different use for death photography, which was to advertise embalming and to promote the business of embalmers. Before the outbreak of the war, embalming techniques were largely shunned by society; however, the longevity which embalming gave to a corpse quickly changed the opinion of bereaved families, desperate to have the remains of loved ones returned them. It is difficult to estimate what the trajectory of embalming would have been had it not been for its development and use within this setting and as such, it is important to consider here. While each of the images under discussion presents a strongly oppositional idea of death and either challenging or embracing the long-held concept of death as the long slumber, each played a similarly significant role in shifting death attitudes and the way in which photography is used to preserve, discuss and communicate death narratives.

2.1. PHOTOJOURNALISM AND DEATH Prior to the birth of photography, stories of battle had been reliant on textual and oral accounts of conflict or upon the sketched recollections of war artists. In each example, the account of a particular time and place would invariably be colored by the narrator and often in accordance with the audience with which they were trying to engage. In some

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instances, this may encompass the removal of graphic details, or the absence of emotion – perhaps both. For those removed from the scene of the conflict it was difficult, if not impossible, to truly understand what it meant to fight and die in these circumstances. While artistic depictions did their best to convey the sentiments of soldiers and their experiences of the battlefield, these too were problematic in that they were invariably done after the fact and were incapable of capturing the scene in the same authentic and visceral way that an image would. It was not until the birth of the wet collodion plate that photography was able to transition into the realm of “realtime” photojournalism (Stapp, 1980, p. 198). Prior to this, exposure times were quite lengthy, requiring the subject to remain still in a single pose. Obviously, this was of no use for capturing action shots, which by nature are not staged and must be taken immediately. While still bulky and difficult to transport, the wet collodion plate required a far shorter exposure time, giving photographers the ability to capture images which had previously been impossible. Although they were still of little use during an actual exchange of gunfire, they gave access to the immediate aftermath. This is what is captured in images of the Civil War and it is here that death first becomes present and accessible to the viewer. In addition to allowing the photographer greater freedom regarding location shooting, the collodion process was also capable of capturing a scene with more clarity within the image itself, giving greater detail to the subject. In these examples, it is often the clarity with which the photographer has caught the figures of the dead that gives the images their haunting quality. The Civil War, while largely recognized as the conflict which gave birth to photojournalism, was not the first instance of photography being used to document the brutality of conflict, although it was responsible for seeing images

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disseminated into multiple national news publications, thus ensuring that no member of American society was removed from the realities of war. Italian-born British photographer Felice Beato accompanied the British army through India in 1857 as an official photographer and it is here where the photojournalism found its earliest form. Whereas previous photographers had focused on images of living soldiers and the landscapes of conflict territories, Beato broke with tradition and decided to photograph the aftermath of the storming of the Secundra Bagh in Lucknow, Northern India (Stapp, 1980, p. 200). The photographs which came about in response to this decision showed a battlefield littered with corpses (Trafton, 2016, p. 73). This was not the image of noble and victorious death, which had been raised as the cultural ideal, but an anonymous and violent end. Bodies were strewn haphazardly around the battlefield, decomposition settling in before there was hope for them to be claimed by loved ones, let alone for the proper Christian burial which the narrative of the Good Death demanded. Challenging the notion of glorious death in this way would become important for the conflict images which followed Beato’s early foray into the field of war photography (Trafton, 2016, p. 79). This is not to say that new narratives of glory did not spring up in response to the anonymity of loneliness of the soldier’s fallen corpse, only that these new narratives would erase the concept of the Good Death, replacing it with an immortality of a different kind. Bridgette Bennet (2007) estimates that during the Civil War around 42 percent of deceased soldiers remained unidentified (p. 149). Many of these bodies were never returned home, but were interred anonymously in mass graves. While their journey between life and death remains a mystery, it is not difficult to image the pain and suffering that the unknown bought to the families and loved ones that were left behind.

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For this reason, it was important to capture scenes from various battlefields across the country. While these would have undoubtedly been a cold comfort to grieving families, they did allow for some insight into where their loved ones had died as well as the scale of life lost. To see that death was not experienced only by their beloved, but by hundreds, if not thousands of men in unison, created an avenue through which a new narrative of comfort could emerge. The soldier, in his anonymity had become part of a communal body, which was grieved for by the nation. In subsequent conflicts, particularly those which did not take place exclusively on American soil, there was similarly little if any chance that remains would be repatriated. In these instances too, images were the only conduit between the living and dead. While they may not have provided closure to families on specific deaths, their depictions of the soldier on the front, in the trenches and in the aftermath of battle were integral to establishing the idea that every soldier died a noble death and that their memory would endure as one of heroism and triumph. In the present day, this same concept of nobility remains a key focal point of the death narratives which pertain to soldiers. This is evidenced in the national days of mourning that take place across the globe, which are specifically concerned with the remembrance of the war dead. Anyone who gives their life in service to country retains their right to a distinct kind of Good Death, while for the rest of us, these concepts of sacrifice, virtue and externalism are largely absent. The legacy of Civil War photography is dominated by the work of Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner, who existed as collaborators and rivals throughout the conflict. While it was Brady who first established a troupe of photographers to capture several of the pivotal moments throughout the duration of the war, he was not a highly skilled photographer

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himself and many of the images credited to him were taken by photographers in his employ (Lightfoot, 2019, p. 162). One of these was Alexander Gardner. The two men started out as colleagues and friends, with Gardner running one of Brady’s photographic studios in addition to working for him (Meigs, 2012, p. 5). Upon growing wearing of Brady’s abuse of his staff, however, Gardner broke off from his dealings with Brady to start his own business. It is Gardner who was responsible for capturing the images from Gettysburg, many of which have come to be symbolic of the Civil War in its entirety. Due to their recognizability, it is these I turn to now.

2.2. PHOTOGRAPHING THE DEAD: THE BATTLEFIELD Accounts of Gardner’s work in Gettysburg suggest that he and his crew arrived at the scene mere days after the battle had concluded and not before the clean-up crews had finished their unhappy task of burying the bodies of the deceased (Lightfoot, 2019, pp. 161–163). This allowed Gardner unprecedented access to the landscape of the conflict but, more importantly, unparalleled access to the dead. It was through the bodies of the fallen soldiers that he would be able to convey the true cost of this war and thus, he and his men worked with the singular mission of capturing the dead as the focal point of their images. Although the resultant scenes give the impression of having caught the moment as it happened, many of them have been staged to some degree, with Gardner (like Brady before him) admitting that bodies were moved to create a more engaging composition and to tell the story of what he and his fellow photographers had witnessed (Trafton, 2016, p. 75). Unlike previous death rituals, in this instance the living were not engaging with the dead (whom they did not know)

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to show care and respect for the corpse. Instead, bodies were moved with the express purpose of creating a scene. Gardner’s ambition was to create a national narrative, an elegy of war in which the corpse of soldier appeared to be at home in its foreign grave (Huppauf, 1997, p. 21). In their anonymity, the dead thus became props in service of a lager goal: to convey the “truth” of the Civil War. Here again, we see evidence of a communal mourning in which the identity of the individual and the subsequent care of their corpse is sacrificed in favor of the larger cultural narrative. For Gardner and his team, there was no ill-will intended toward the dead, whom they maneuvered into various positions, only a sense of urgency in which they felt compelled to tell the larger story of the war. It was this story which would make the concept of death in the face of conflict accessible to those far removed from the front lines and this which would haunt the American identity long after the conclusion of the conflict. Even today, after many subsequent wars, it is difficult to look upon these images without questioning whether the cost of life outweighs the purpose. In the aftermath of the Civil war, Alexander Gardner released a compilation album which featured many of the images he and his team had taken in Gettysburg, along with a range of shots from other sites of conflict. Rather than focusing on the heroic portrait of the survivors or high-ranking members of the military, Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1866) focused on the dead. It has become synonymous with the historic memory of the Civil War (Godbey, 2012) and remains unparalleled in the complexity of the narrative which it depicts. At the time of the books release, the price and size made it a commercial failure, although critically it was celebrated. Among contemporary viewers, it is a highly sought collector’s item. One compelling reason to consider when assessing why the publication may not have been a staple of many family homes (apart from the cost), is that

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these and similar images had previously been mass-produced for audiences to view in stereoscope. Similarly, they had been incorporated in a range of touring exhibitions, which utilized them in varying formats (including 3D) ensuring that they were accessible to all members of society.

2.3. INTERACTING WITH THE DEAD: MASS PRODUCTION OF IMAGES Books and newspapers were not the only avenue through which images of the war entered the homes of American citizens. Despite the brutal circumstances which they depicted, battlefield scenes could be (and often were) bought into the home (Stapp, 1980, p. 197) for entertainment, reflection and discussion. Well-known prints of the conflicts which depicted episodes from the Civil War were exhibited throughout America as a means of making the reality of the war more accessible to a large audience. These proved to be quite popular among men and women, who attended in droves to examine these enlarged images. In some accounts, attendees took opera glasses, so as to examine the faces more closely in the hope of identifying someone (Godby, 2012, p. 271). Geoffrey Klingsporn (2000) suggests that the fame of many of Gardiner’s images, specifically A Harvest of Death is a direct result of the age of mass reproduction (p. 8), that its popularity relied on the notion of the image as trinket or collectable of war, which could be purchased as a keepsake of national loss. Although viewers might first encounter these images in the grainy newspaper publication, they were able to interact with them on a larger scale in the gallery environment. This fascination could then be taken into the home through the purchase of prints. Collectable images were often stored in large albums, which became a

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conversation piece when entertaining guests, as well as being a constant reminder of loss (Godby, 2012, pp. 271–273). Such examples might also be read as a conduit through which the individual was able to engage directly with mourning despite the anonymity of the victims. Although the death toll was representative of a national loss, the core of that narrative still rested on the fact that survivors were often enacting grief rituals in memory of individual men, albeit in new ways. When this concept is coupled with the invention and subsequent popularity of the stereoscope, it is becomes evident that images were a means for people to get close to the war, to learn about the true horror of battle and to indulge their interest in death from the comfort of their own home and social circle. In his discussion of stereoscope technology, Oliver Wendell Holmes suggests that the stereoscope viewer produced a state in which we (viewers) seem to leave the body behind us and sail away into one strange scene after another, like disembodied spirits. If stereoscope users entered a reverie in which they became “disembodied spirits,” they did so while looking at images of the dead who were reduced by war’s horrors to nothing by spiritless bodies. (Holmes, 1861, pp. 14–15) For modern viewers a similar sentiment might encompass our engagement with online media and the constant stream of access which is available in any one of millions of webpages. Although the location and the purpose of modern war have changed, along with the ways in which it is fought, the fact remains that every time we engage with a conflict image we too are swept away. The view retains the place of the disembodied spirit, watching on as the spirits of the dead depart to the next world, while we are left to ponder the purpose of such gruesome atrocities as are seen in any act of war.

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2.4. LATER WAR IMAGES Despite advancements in photography and photographic methods, war photographers on the front during World War I and World War II also reported that the photograph was inadequate for capturing living soldiers on the battlefield (Gough, 2018, p. 22). There are a range of reasons for this, but primary among them is that no camera can reproduce a faithfully rendered account of the soldier’s experience of being in battle. In the following sections, I will look briefly at both World War I and World War II, with the purpose of providing further insight into the changing way that war and death came to be depicted in the photographed image. In the case of each conflict there is a phenomenal amount of existing scholarship, all of which is far more detailed than these sections are intended to be. Similarly, there are a range of different journalistic and artistic sources from which we might draw. Depending on the artist of the image, its purpose was dictated by a very specific goal. In keeping with the themes of this book, I have chosen to focus on compositional images which strove to capture the close proximity between life and death, as felt by soldiers on the front. In the treatment of World War II, my focus will be on atrocity images. This theme will be continued in Chapter 4, with my discussion of lynching.

2.5. WORLD WAR I The Civil War was a starting point from which all subsequent mass produced images of war developed. While the goal of many of these scenes had been to depict the realities of death in battle, during World War I some photographers working in the field were challenging the notion of death and the appearance of the spirit in war images. One example

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is Australian war photographer Frank Hurley, who was deployed to France to capture images from the front. Working with his partner, Hubert Wilkins, Hurley challenged perceptions of war photography by working with multiple exposures to create composition shots. The purpose of this approach was to capture the presence of death on the front, creating a narrative not only about the loss of war, but the movement of the soul from this world into the next (Dixon, 2004, p. 250). Images such as Returned Soldiers (1918) and The Morning after the First Battle of Passchendaele (1918) are composite prints. Returned Soldiers depicts surviving soldiers reminiscing on their memories of the front, including those who had not made it home, while Passchendaele shows the sun rising over a military camp, where the bodies of the living and the dead intermingle in the mud. In both examples, light is implemented exclusively to suggest the close proximity between life and death. In the first image, the living gather closely together at camp, the glow of the fire illuminates their faces, making those facing the camera featureless. To the top right of the image a camera flare recalls what Spiritualists would describe as the presence of the dead, suggesting that the living and dead exist closely in times of conflict. In Passchendaele, the light of the sun, breaking through the clouds recalls the idea of the soul entering into Heaven. When viewed alongside the bodies of the deceased soldiers, the effect suggests that having lingered with their comrades through the night, the departed are now being welcomed into God’s kingdom. It is specifically this use of light which, as Desmond Manderson (2017, p. 168) argues, gives Hurley’s work its haunting esthetic quality. Although it was controversial at the time, with official war historian Charles Bean prohibiting the use of Hurley’s images (Jolly, 1999, p. 141), in time the technique would come to be recognized as one of the most influential within the genre of war images.

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Bean disliked Hurley’s photographic style, feeling that it was not only fake, but that it was concerned with commercial interest (Dixon, 2007, p. 166). This caused a long-running rivalry between the two, of which Hurley has been the victor, as his images continue to inspire the imagination as well as playing an integral role in the collective cultural memory of the war. In another of Hurley’s well-recognized photographs, Wounded on the Menin Road (1917) living soldiers can be seen walking amid the strewn bodies of their fallen comrades. While some of the injured raise their heads to face the camera, others are inert, and it is difficult to discern if those in the background of the image are alive at all. The sky around both living and dead is filled with lingering smoke, while the bodies of the soldiers lay in the mud, reminiscent of scenes captured by Gardiner 50 years beforehand. The Menin Road conflict in particular is one of the bloodiest to take place in World War I, with tens of thousands of soldiers either killed in combat or reported missing. The event has been captured in a range of artistic mediums, including in the painting “Menin Gate at Midnight” which features the resurrected souls of the lost, wandering across the deserted battlefields in search of home. At the site of the conflict a memorial still stands which lists 54,000 names, each one related to a missing soldier with no known grave. What Hurley’s images of Menin Gate and other conflicts highlight, in a way which other mediums cannot, if the close proximity between life and death. This is particularly true for those injured in battle, for whom the relationship between life and death takes on a new meaning. In several examples of Hurley’s work, the names of soldiers were recorded on the rear of the image. Record keeping efforts such as this allowed for the identification of several soldiers lost on the battlefield. These images allowed audiences to not just identify the fallen but resurrect the dead

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through the medium of the image (Dixon, 2004, p. 253). Formal record keeping in this instance bears some similarities to examples from the Civil War, in so far as audiences in the gallery setting hoped that in looking at the faces of the deceased, they would find someone they recognized. Although we can only speculate as to how one might feel in capturing the figure of a loved one, anonymous, dead and far from home, it is safe to say that it would have been unpleasant and that the willingness of an individual to risk that form of engagement speaks to a profound longing for closure. Unlike other media, this is an opportunity which only the photograph can provide.

2.6. WORLD WAR II While photographic evidence from the battlefields of World War II does exist in abundance, many of the death images which first come to the mind of the contemporary audience are those which capture the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the deaths of millions of European Jews in prison camps across the Continent. While we might wonder what sort of person could stomach photographing such a scene (Huppauf, 1997, p. 33), it is undeniable that these images have become integral to our historic and cultural understanding of war time atrocity. Susan Sontag recalls her first encounter with atrocity images from Nazi Death Camps (Sontag, 2008, pp. 20–21), which she states changed her outlook on the photographed image forever. Unlike other conflicts before it, the mass extinction of Jews was unparalleled in relation to international conflict and unlike previous examples, these were images that depicted innocent citizens rather than soldiers. As images of the conditions of the death camps began to perforate throughout the

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global community the true scale of the torture and atrocity endured by these individuals become difficult to deny. Many examples of these images recall the battlefield, with bodies strewn haphazardly across the landscape of the image or piled in communal groups in preparation for mass burial. Unlike those of soldiers who have fallen in conflict, what makes these images stand out is the emaciated frame of so many of these victims. There is evidence here not of combat but of torture. Images of mass burial too, depict thousands of corpses, naked and piled atop of each other, their bodies so tiny that they appear genderless and featureless. These are truly the anonymous dead. In the contemporary world, it is the photographs of these victims which continue to haunt each of us and while their continued presence can be difficult to bear, it is important that we continue to engage with these images of the dead who are too, so often anonymous. Unless we allow these victims to speak, we risk allowing them to vanish into obscurity. After her first encounter with atrocity images, Susan Sontag was critical of the ability of the image to convey emotion. This was based in the saturation of images in the every day. Rather than encountering the content of the photographs she describes in a museum setting, Sontag discovers them in a second-hand store. That they have been discarded, to be sold amid the other debris of daily life is as difficult to digest now as it was for Sontag at the time. Yet Sontag is perhaps complacent in her suggestion that abundance limits the impact of the image, a notion she would revisit and revise in her later work. Judith Butler considers Sontag’s changing stance on the importance of death photography, specifically as it relates to images of war and atrocity, in her consideration of On Photography and Regarding the Pain of Others (of which the latter title was published over two decades later, in 2003). As Butler highlights, in her late work Sontag concedes that

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the photograph can and must demonstrate human suffering because it is in doing so that it keeps humans alert to the pain and atrocity which are taking place in the world. This is what keeps us human (Butler, 2005, p. 824). Although the availability of death and atrocity images is more abundant in the present moment than it has ever been this sentiment continues to ring true. While the Civil War was the first example of mass scale photographic journalism, it was far from the last example of atrocity photography. Every major conflict which has taken place around the world since then has similarly been the subject of photography. More recently terrorism attacks from both foreign and domestic perpetrators have been included in this genre of death image. The same is equally true of immanent death images, which can be more haunting than the image of death itself. Among contemporary audiences for instance, it is difficult to forget the lone protester, facing off against a tank in Tiananmen Square (1989), or the falling man, captured plunging from the World Trade Centre in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001). In both examples, it is anonymity which lives in proximity to death and, while neither of these images depicts soldiers in the act of battle, they are indicative of the fact that conflict is becoming more present in the everyday and that it is no longer resigned to the confines of the battlefield.

2.7. EMBALMING THE DEAD: PRESERVATION OF SOLDIERS For the contemporary reader, embalming is a process which has become closely associated with death and the rituals of dying. It is only recently that we have seen a pronounced

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trend away from embalming, which for decades has been considered a necessity for the interment of the corpse. Much of this current trend is related to the increased popularity of cremation, which has usurped the popular position which embalming once held, although a growing inclination toward green burial alternatives is also beginning to shape the way to contemplate the future disposal of our bodies. Despite its commonality in modern western death narratives, however, the process of embalming is only a relevantly recent introduction into how we care for the dead. Although it has varied in forms for thousands of years (the Egyptians have been using embalming techniques since antiquity), it was during the Civil War that the magnitude of death allowed for important progress to be made in its application within the medical setting and funeral industry. Often this was achieved on the outskirts of the battlefield, where itinerant embalmers used the seemingly endless supply of corpses to fine tune and then promote their unique trade. There were a variety of ways that the individual might meet with death during the Civil War. When we consider field medicine at the time, in one sense, death in battle was one of the quickest and most merciful. To sustain a serious injury which did not immediately result in death was to face a long and uncertain road to recovery, one which, depending on the severity of the injury, was not only unassured but fraught with the possibility of further complication. Not only were field medics ill-equipped to deal with the huge number of casualties, but their methods of treatment were often responsible for prolonged suffering and death. This was the direct result of inferior sanitation and sterilization of equipment. It is interesting to note that one aspect of death with Civil War images do not capture the casualties of field hospitals. Regardless of how it came, death was the most assured way for the body to find itself on the embalming table.

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Embalming, particularly in the advertising of the service, is in stark contrast to battlefield photography. There is photographic evidence of both and what each of these examples reveals is a very different relationship between the living and the dead. When used to demonstrate the preservation benefits of the technique, embalming images convey almost a sense of pride in achievement. This is evidence of human pride over the delusion that we might intercede in the process of death. While death has still taken place, the process of embalming has arrested its affects, allowing the corpse a kind of morbid second life. The benefit of this is not for the deceased as much as it is for the bereaved, who now have a longer period in which they might interact with the remains of a departed loved one. Within the context of the Civil War, this would become important to notions of repatriation. Photography of the hastily embalmed battlefield corpse became a popular means of advertising the services of embalmers, who promised to return lost loved ones from the front, back to their families without the usual risk of decade and putrefaction (Doughty, 2016, pp. 77–78). Due to the long travel distances and limited means of transport available at the time, prior to the development of the embalming process, bodies had been shipped on ice and in lead coffins, among other, more dubious methods. Not only was this costly to the families, but unsanitary. Although lead coffins and blocks of ice had initially been looked to as the solution to this problem, even they provided little protection against the forces of nature. Bodies were often so badly decomposed by the time they were returned across country (by rail) that trains frequently refused to carry them as cargo. For bereaved families, the embalming of the corpse allowed for it to be transported across the country for a private burial, thus giving loved ones the opportunity to mourn the deceased and to enact traditional funerary rituals with the body. In some instances, the embalmed corpse would also be photographed

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for posterity. Photographs of the embalmed body, like the postmortem death portraits of previous eras, could then be sent to other family members, who were unable to attend the site of a funeral or assist in mourning activities. Even in its earliest iteration, embalming practices arrested the composition of the body, creating an eerie suggestion of peaceful slumber (Schwartz, 2015, pp. 22–23). When viewed in relation to the cause of death, this too was incredibly important for assisting the living to process their grief. While death images traded on the brutality and realities of war, the embalmed corpse allowed the bereaved to wipe away the suggestion of these truths in favor of a different narrative. In its preserved form, the body of their loved one reclaimed dignity in death. The brutalities of battle were erased and replaced with the idea of peace, something which any soldier is deserving of. The acceptance of the embalming technique, along with its perfection during the period, would become essential to verifying embalming as a legitimate means of corpse disposal, while also allowing grieving families to receive the bodies of their fallen loved ones. This is not to suggest that the option of embalming was available to everyone. There was a fee involved with the preservation, while additional costs for transportation of the corpse were also a reality. All of this was reliant upon the fact that a body was available in the first place. In the disarray of battle, it was not always possible to identify individuals, let alone salvage their remains for embalming and interment. Similarly, as physicians worked to perfect their trade, casualties of these attempts were also a consequence to progress. It is important that when we view this style of death image that we realize that embalmed corpses represent the minority of Civil War casualties and that, for the overwhelming majority, death remained an anonymous departure, in which their final thoughts and fears will remain absent from the historical narrative.

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2.8. CONCLUSION By modern standards, images of the Civil Ware are far from the most confrontational images that have captured the violence and tragedy of battle. There have, of course, been dozens of armed conflicts since. The epic scope of lives lost in World War I and World War II alone would change the way that death and grief were understood and practiced throughout the world. Yet images from this conflict continue to be displayed in the gallery and among audience of the general public as well as in academic writing. There is an enduring fascination with these, the first images of mass casualty. Perhaps, this relates to the fact that even in their staging, these images still recall a more romantic ideal of what it was to fight and die in the service of one’s nation. It is difficult for the modern viewer to look at the faces of these young men and feel anything other than pity at the realization that they were hopelessly ill-equipped for the battle that stood before them. In this moment we are filled with the hopeless inadequacy which Berger (1980, p. 42) describes. The gift of hindsight only amplifies this, particularly when paired with the knowledge that we continue in our failure to learn from the tragedies of conflict. Between the Civil War and World War I, the world was undergoing a massive cultural shift. As progression in science and technology changed the way in which people lived, their advancement also threatened to dethrone the grip of religion. It was in religious belief that many death narratives found their roots, and, in the absence of faith, many people felt adrift in their relationship with the dead. In response to public unease, Spiritualism became a popular alternative to organized religion. Its fusion of faith and science provided a fertile ground in which the grief stricken were able to write new stories about the dead. In these examples, there was not only the possibility

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of afterlife reunion, but the suggestion of the autonomous soul. Although communication between the living and the spirit realm had been in existence long before the first spirit photograph was taken, it was the power of the image that solidified the death narratives of the Spiritualists. In the next chapter, I look at examples of this form of death photography, drawing on both the practice of death photography and the impact of the Civil War and World War I to explain its popularity.

CHAPTER 3 CONTINUANCE

Image 4. Antique Chair Source: Shutterstock.

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Roland Barthes suggests that what is depicted in the photographed image has little relationship to what is seen by the audience (Barthes, 2000, p. 6). Instead, the image is a series of symbols, which are interpreted in accordance with the themes and interests of the society which has produced them. While specific signifiers will always be evident (such as the skull is symbolic of death or the crucifix of religion), others will be more specific to the period of production and thus, appear strange to viewers who witness them from a different time or location far removed. Chapter 1 discussed the idea of the Good Death and the influence which that concept had on the composition of death imagery and its accompanying narratives. In these examples, the death photograph was romanticized to support the larger notion that dying was a peaceful and, often beautiful experience. Depending on the age of the subject and the circumstances of their death, these narratives were portrayed through a range of symbolic items, positioned within the image to denote specific ideas about the afterlife and the continuing journey of the descendant. The symbols were a communicative tool, through which recipients of death images immediately understood what the photograph conveyed (which was important if they could not read) and offered them consolation in the event that they had not been able to participate in the death and mourning rituals which were so important to demonstrating love and care for the deceased. In light of what they symbolized, these images became beloved family heirlooms which were preserved as a means of creating a tangible connection with the dead. In preserving the image of a lost loved one, that person was able to live on alongside the family for many years after their death, albeit it as a process of memory (Phelan, 2002, p. 981). In some cases, this could even allow for multi-generational interaction between the living and their deceased kin. Although they may seem

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macabre to modern audiences, in many examples the death image represented the only proof of an individual’s existence. Chapter 2 carried on this idea in its consideration of war photography, in so far as the photograph was used in the construction of social narratives around the glory of war and the sacrifice of the fallen. Rather than individual stories however, what the photographs that depict soldiers (living and dead) create is a mythology of sacrificial victory, in which the casualties of war live in eternity as members of a communal body. While these narratives were important to accepting the massive loss of life experienced during the Civil War, the narrative evolved in the wake of subsequent conflicts. Between the Civil War and World War I, there were enormous cultural shifts which impacted every aspect of society, including the way in which death was perceived, discussed and commemorated. In time, these would impact how death and the idea of eternity were discussed. One of the most obvious aspects of this shift is the move away from the communal body toward the idea of the autonomous soul (Lightfoot, 2019, p. 150). Here, rather than the soul returning to Heaven to rejoin a larger collective and thus surrendering any sense of self or memory, the soul retained its unique identity. The dead traveled on to an afterlife which paralleled the living world (Cadwallader, 2008, p. 17). Perhaps inspired by the technological wonder of the telegraph, this world was seen almost as a different frequency to the living, but one to which specific individuals could be attuned. What this presented was the possibility of communication. These beliefs would, in turn, impact the way that photography was utilized in the construction of narratives. Although the dead remain the focal point of the death image throughout its next evolution, their body in its substantial form is increasingly absent. As I stated in Chapter 1, both Roland Barthes and John Berger have explicitly argued that the photograph is a memento of the absent. The first two chapters of this book

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approached this idea in relation to the visibility of the authentic body within the image. In this instance, it was the image of the body that stood in place of its absence of from the physical world. In this sense, the image was historical proof of someone who had once been but was no longer part of this world. In this chapter, I challenge this concept by looking at a genre of images which are distinctly absent of the physical body and yet remain, powerful mementoes of the dead. As an expression of death narratives which were reliant upon the assumption that communicating with the dead was possible, I will explore how the use of spirit photography played a central role in the reconstruction of a new dialog about death, its limitations and its possibilities.

3.1. SPIRIT IMAGES AND SPIRITUALISM Spiritualism was a reflection of the technological advancement of the era. In an age where the telegraph and electricity were illuminating the world and bringing people closer together, spiritualist sought to unite the living and the dead. In their doctrines of afterlife reunion, they restored hope by addressing the desires of the living, which were to overcome the fracture of death and war (Cox, 2003, pp. 69–70). The Spiritualist Movement, while claiming a foothold in the scientific, rose to prominence largely in response to the scientific attempt to disprove religious ideas of the afterlife. Its doctrines were helped along with the engagement of several high-profile members, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who went on several international speaking tours to spread news of its wonders (Schmit, 2005, pp. 93–94). Similarly, the popularity of the movement was enhanced due to an enduring public fascination with electricity and the exploration between the human body and electrical current.

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As Jeffrey Sconce (2000, p. 10) explains, the Spiritualist session (like the overarching beliefs of the religion itself) was as much of a marriage between science and metaphysics as it was an expedition to prove life after death. In harnessing, the ability to capture a spirit, or the metaphysical essence of the departed; Spiritualists sought to legitimize their right to alternative belief. When I discuss Spiritualist photography, used within Spiritualism to capture a living subject (the sitter) alongside an “extra” (spirit), I am referring to two distinct styles of image and these will be discussed in turn. The first will be images in which the sitter is photographed alongside the appearance of a spirit. It is these images in which the dead seem to return to the living realm to convey a message to their living loved ones. That message: I am still with you. What these examples overwhelmingly project is a longing on behalf of the sitter for comfort and assurance. As such, it is these which give us an insight into what kind of death narratives were taking place at this point in history. While there is much contention about the accuracy or authenticity of spirit photographs, the role which they played within the grieving process should not be understated. For the viewer of the image, particularly in the present, it does not matter if the appearance of a spirit is in fact an authentic depiction of an apparition. What is apparent about these photographs is that the families who commissioned them believed that they were authentic (Apraxine & Schmit, 2005, p. 14). With that in mind, modern audiences are behooved to separate themselves from any quest to disprove authenticity by approaching these images with a clinical eye, or to disregard the images as invalid because they appear to have been created to appease the consumer. The belief by the bereaved that these images were genuine proof of the continuing presence of their deceased loves ones is

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the primary concern, and there is certainly an abundance of evidence which suggests that they did believe. Discussion of this variety of images concludes with a consideration of William Mumler. Mumler is widely recognized as the father of the spirit photograph, becoming famous for his uncanny ability to produce spirit images for his sitters. During the peak of his fame, Mumler was engaged by a range of prominent figures, including Mary Todd Lincoln, for whom he produced a range of spirit photographs. Later, he was charged with fraud and tried in front a judge at the New York county court (Jolly, 2006, p. 14). Although the charges against him were eventually dismissed, the accounts of the witnesses who were called in Mumler’s defense provides an interesting insight into the role of the spirit photograph, not as a historically genuine artifact, but as mourning object. In assessing the compositional narratives of spirit images, Mumler provides an important case study, as many surviving examples are taken from his studios. The second type of image to be considered from the Spiritualist era is that depicting mediums during the séance. In these examples, the medium or clairvoyant is the focal point of the image and while they are very much alive, it is their body which becomes the conduit between the living and the dead. In many examples, this body will be captured while in the process of omitting a type of smoke or plasma (also known as ectoplasm), which is the “proof” of an interaction with the spirit realm. In more rare instances, the plasma itself appears to contain the image of a deceased individual who is trying to make contact. Unlike the spirit photographs discussed above, the composition of the séance image is vastly different. While still being demonstrative of the ongoing quest to prove a connection between realms, the depictions of the dead in these images are secondary to what the images reveal about the way in which gender roles continued to play

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a significant role in the larger discussion on death, spirits and the afterlife. Although men were not strangers to the séance room, it was women who more frequently returned to the fore as active players in these death rituals. While they were not, in these examples, directly responsible for the care of the physical bodies of the dead, within the séance room, their bodies became the active conduit through which the dead communicated. This gave them an unprecedented amount of agency.

3.2. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WAR AND SPIRITUALISM As discussed in the previous chapter, the loss of life experienced in America as a result of the Civil War was so great that it did not allow for the identification of individual bodies, which had to be interred in mass graves before decomposition made them a health hazard for the living. The impact of such events on the emotional psyche of surviving family and loved ones, in the inability to mourn and undertake essential mourning rituals, would leave an imprint on the larger social construct of death and the relationship between body and spirit. It is perhaps unsurprising then, that the first accounts of spiritual correspondence arose around the same time as the conclusion of the Civil War and would continue to gain momentum throughout America until after the conclusion of World War I. In contrast, the religion did not gain traction in the United Kingdom and Europe until the turn of the century. This can be read in relation to the fact that at this period, neither area had suffered comparable human loss. The outbreak of World War I would drastically change this however and a subsequent increase in the popularity of Spiritualism is seen in response to this conflict. As members of the public sought to reconnect with the souls of loved

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ones who had perished in faraway battles, new mediums of communication were necessary. Paul Gough attributes the popularity of Spiritualism throughout Europe in the postWorld War I era as a direct response to the trials perpetuated on society throughout the Great War (Gough, 2006, pp. 160–116). Similar sentiments have been expressed in relation to the Civil War, specifically in relation to the fact that for many soldiers who were to die in battle there was no option for a personalized burial. The anonymity of these deaths has been the motivation behind public memorials, such as those found at Gettysburg in the United States (marking the Civil War) or throughout Europe (in remembrance of World War I). In these instances, it is a public loss which is mourned, with the magnitude of loss taking preference over the individuality of those killed. While these public sites of mourning have a profound way of bringing communities together (Gough, 2018), monuments such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier or the Menin Gate also highlight the grief which accompanies the anonymous dead and the ­families left behind.

3.3. COMPOSITION OF THE SPIRIT IMAGE Spirit photographs are dual portraits, which unite the living with the specter of the dead, without having the rely on the use of the corpse (Hamer, 2018, p. 146). They gave griefstricken family members the option to say goodbye, along with a tangible hope for the chance of an afterlife reunion. Spirit photographs varied in their finer details, but the basic composition of the images is fairly uniform (Cadwallader, 2008, p. 14). The central component of the spirit photograph is always the sitter, who will appear centrally in the image. It is this figure who draws the attention of the audience and

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through them that the strongest emotions are communicated. It is those who draws the attention of the audience and through them that the strongest emotions are communicated. In contrast to the death images discussed in Chapter 1, in most instance the living are seated, although there are some examples where the person is standing. The seated position was preferable as it allowed for the greatest amount of open space around the sitter. It was in this space that the spirit image would manifest. As these spectral images were always insubstantial, the quality of the image was reliant upon giving the spirit a black background into which it could materialize with enough clarity to be recognizable. A single spectral image, or several, would ultimately appear within the photograph. In the majority of surviving examples, single spirit pictures tend to depict the deceased in direct contact with the sitter. Often, they will be shown standing or hovering above the seated figure, looking down (or watching over). In other instances, the spirit will have one or both hands resting on some part of the sitter, commonly the shoulders. While the touch cannot be felt by the living, the image allows it to be read for sentiment. It is always suggestive of care and affection, to promote the idea that the deceased is looking in on their living loved one and that they maintain a care and affection for that person. There are no examples of spirit images in which the deceased appears to be enacting a violent or aggressive posture toward the sitter, perhaps because antagonism does not align with the sense of longing that inspired the living toward acquisition of these images. As for disquieted spirits, it would appear that they were either unable or unwilling to manifest in the images of living. In examples where multiple forms are present, it is interesting to note that whole bodies are not visible, but identifiable portions, usually the head and torso, will appear in a position which suggests that the figures are standing to the rear of the

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sitter. In more rare cases, most of which have been discredited as forgeries, numerous heads can be seen within the image. In these instances, the multiple apparitions will seem to surround, or crowd in on, the face of the sitter and seen are with a higher level of clarity, which is at odds with most “genuine” examples. Later attempts to capture spirits, and those which incorporate elements of the séance into their design, will also occasionally feature disembodied images floating around the sitter. These can be clear faces, portions of a body, or fingers of light (which appear like camera flares). Faces and bodies do not always appear of comparable size to the sitter, and are often enlarged, obscuring portions of the living body. Rather than a direct presence, these variations on the theme suggest an essence of the deceased as opposed to a full bodied and sentient spirit. Investigations into all varieties of spirit images frequently focused on the fact that they were fraudulent and had come about as the result of glass negative plates being incorrectly cleaned. The use of composition images has also been heavily cited as the method behind the creation of such examples. To demonstrate the ease with which compositional methods could be employed to achieve this end, well-known photographers of the era were able to construct spirit photographs of their own. Unlike the authentic items however, these were often highly theatrical and tend to invite mockery of the motivation behind obtaining genuine spirit images. In the genuine image, the spirit is affirming the same kind of compassionate emotion which the post-mortem image sought to provide, yet the composition switch the position of the deceased and the living. In these examples, it is not the dead who remain immobile, but speak back. The living participant, in contrast, is stalled in their grief (Cadwallader, 2008, p. 17). They are fixed in position, waiting for communication

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from the other side, for the same demonstration of care which had been shown to the corpse in the original death photograph. This shift in power, between the living and the dead, is what imbues the spirit image with much of its poignancy. It is not merely a memento of the absent, but a representation of how that absence and its accompanying emotion dwells within the everyday lives of living. Rather than just the visage of the departed, here audiences are confronted with a genuine example of the tragedy of personified mourning. The dead, in their absence, are the only ones who can provide comfort to those who miss them (Firenze, 2004, p. 76). The spirit image is their medium to fulfill this yearning (Cadwallader, 2008, p. 18).

3.4. WILLIAM MUMLER In the history of the spirit photograph, William Mumler (1832–1884) remains one of the most recognized figures within the medium, his contribution to the field is essential to consider in any discussion of spirit photography. Mumler rose from the obscurity of his trade as a jeweler (he specialized in ornate frames for daguerreotype images) when he produced the first officially recognized spirit image, quite by accident, in 1861 (Kaplan, 2008, p. 35). His images have a distinct uniformity and are generally straightforward in their delivery. The sitter is the focal point of the portrait and the spirit will materialize to the side of them. In surviving examples, faces of both the living and the dead are clearly discernable and the dead always appear to be attired in much the same way as one would expect the living to be dressed. Their clothing is not always a replica of their burial attire (Kaplan, 2008, p. 62), which supports the idea of a parallel world in which the dead continue to partake in many of the same activities as the living (Gutierrez, 2015, p. 52).

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In the few examples where Mumler produced spirit images of people whom he had also photographed during their lives, there are clear similarities between the living and the spirit apparition. In some of these, it is difficult not to conclude that Mumler employed the use of old negatives in the composition of his images. A similar charge was laid against him in the examples of his photographs which feature prominent political figures. In an attempt to disprove deception, Mumler invited his accusers to witness the photography and development of his work (Kaplan, 2008, p. 50), which did not result in any clear evidence of trickery. Still, for the discerning and perhaps cynical eye of the contemporary viewer such accusations haunt the interpretation of all his spirit images. It is virtually impossible to determine how much of Mumler’s work was fraudulent. Perhaps the answer is a simple one: that Mumler committed no fraud because he was not, in fact, the inventor of the spirit image. Felicity Hamer (2018) launches a compelling argument for Mumler’s wife being the originator of the spirit photograph. In her argument, she cites the fact that the female owner of the studio in which Mumler produced his first photograph (Helen F. Stuart), along with the receptionist who worked there (Hannah F. Green), who Mumler would later marry, bore a great many similarities in common, including their Christian name and the initial of their middle name. Another compelling piece of evidence to suggest a deeper involvement in spiritualism and the death industry comes from the fact that Mumler’s wife advertised herself as the designer of hair and other mourning trinkets long before she met Mumler. After their marriage, she would also enjoy a long career as a medium, a role which she continued after their divorce. When considering the autonomy and prestige which women commanded within Spiritualism, particularly when demonstrating ability as psychic mediums,

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it is interesting to note that this did not carry over into the medium of photography. Hamer ultimately concludes that, if it was indeed Mrs Mumler that was behind the composition of the first spirit image, it was the divide between genders which ultimately kept her sidelined while her husband rose to prominence. As of this time, not comprehensive conclusion has been arrived at in relation to how William Mumler, or his wife, managed to process spirit images. Although some examples have been labeled as clearly fraudulent, a great many exist which appear to have some element of authenticity. The criminal case against Mumler was ultimately dismissed by the courts due to lack of evidence (Jolly, 2006, p. 14), though Mumler’s career never quiet recovered from the accusations of fraud which were leveled against him. Despite a brief resurgence in popularity, he was unable to achieve the same level of fame he had originally enjoyed in Boston. After the collapse of his marriage and the loss of his photography business, he died broke and in obscurity – having destroyed the bulk of his negatives (Cloutier, 2005, p. 21). As such, the extent of his talents will forever remain a mystery. Still, the authenticity of the images is not really the point of their importance, for it should not matter to the contemporary viewer if they are real or how they were made. Instead, their existence should give us pause to consider what this form of image meant to the people who paid (often quite a hefty amount) to obtain them.

3.5. SÉANCE PHOTOGRAPHS It is a natural part of the grief process that people long to speak with the departed after they have died. In some instances, a desire to see or communicate with the deceased commands the use of a clairvoyant or psychic. The goal of such interac-

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tion is to communicate with the dead, either to check on their happiness since having moved onto the next life, or to ask them for guidance or favor. In some instances, peace can be drawn simply from the notion that the dead watch over the loved ones that grieve and remember them (Howarth, 2007, p. 189). Even if the “message” that is conveyed through a psychic is not completely accurate or does not appear to make sense to the sitter, it is generally received with enthusiasm, as though providing evidence of the continued happiness of the departed soul. One need only look to current television shows such as Hollywood Medium (2016–) or Crossing Over with John Edward (2000–) to see that such belief systems retain their foothold in contemporary beliefs around death and the afterlife. The drawback with such encounters however is that upon their conclusion, the sitter has no tangible memento, no proof of the message conveyed. During the height of the spiritualist era, this lack was addressed in the production of photographic evidence from sessions. Séances were frequently conducted in darkened rooms which, coupled with the technology of the period, impeded the clarity of many images. In several surviving examples it is nearly impossible to decipher the identity of any specific spirits or entities which are present at the sitting In these examples, it is impossible to decipher the identity of any specific spirits that may have been present. As proof of spirit life and the continuance of the soul however, they allow for a great amount of liberty in the construction of death narratives. For bereaved family members, the hint of a likeness can be taken as proof of the soul’s continuance whilst also giving liberal space to construct the continuing soul narrative for the afterlife. Séance images allow for a great deal more variety than their spirit count parts. We might attribute this to the fact that

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they need not account for as much space for the image of a spirit to manifest because it is not always the physical likeness of the person that is a necessary component of these images. Instead, it is the inference of spirit that is frequently, though not always, the focal point of the séance image. Appearances of apparitions will vary greatly between almost full body motifs and those which focus only on the upper torso and head. In other instances, the medium is the focal point, and here composition is usually based around getting an action shot, in which the medium appears to be in the midst of a trance. Examples which include ectoplasm are frequently from this perspective. Ectoplasm photographs differ from the formality of the spirit photograph in that they will often show women in various stages of undress. Similarly, ectoplasm can be seen pouring from any orifice of the body. This can include the nose, ears or mouth, but in many cases, it also appears to come from the vaginal area. Ectoplasm is an undefinable substance purportedly linked to the spirit world, which appeared regularly in photographs depicting séance activity. Photographs of mediums performing in séance sessions would often include shots of ectoplasm emanating from the body. On occasion, figures of spirits (faces and hands were most common) could be perceived within the substance (Wojcik, 2009, p. 13). Although these images have clearly been doctored to give the appearance of spiritual manifestation, many were interpreted at the time as proof of the medium’s authenticity Although séance images are not concerned specifically with capturing the likeness of the dead, they play an important role in the social discourse of death during the Spiritualist Era. Perhaps, the most interesting aspect of these images is the fact that in many cases, spirit mediums were women

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(Gutierrez, 2015, p. 60). Being successful in this realm of business gave a woman an autonomy she could rarely hope to achieve in the outside world. Still, what the role of women highlights is both an enduring connection between the feminine and death, along with the enduring mysticism surrounding the female body. In relation to first point, and as I have discussed in­ Chapter 1, in older traditions, it was the role of women to bathe and clothe the bodies of deceased family members. They were intimately interwoven with the death narrative, present at the moment when the soul lingered most heavily between earth and the afterlife. When we take their importance in this process and apply it to the later act of Mediumship, it is apparent that the female had once again become the living conduit between living and dead, she is, as always in service to the spirit realm. Women were understood to be suitable to channeling spirits because of their more emotional disposition (Wolffram, 2009, p. 158) but what imagery of the medium will also recall is the long-held superstitions in which women act as witches or conduits, entering in to contracts with demons, imps and various other creatures from the spirit world. An important part of channeling is the ability to surrender to the will of the spirit with whom one is communicating. With this in mind, we have to witness these images of indicative of women who are in a state in which they have lost possession of their own faculties. In relation to the female body, the séance image offers access to the female form which would be unavailable in most other media. In these examples, rather than the body of the dead being employed for the dissecting eye of the viewer, it is the living female body, which is interpreted in accordance with the act of divination. There are instances in which the medium remains relatively unseen by the viewer.

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It was not uncommon for mediums to work behind a curtain or in a secluded area off to the side of the audience for which the ­session was being conducted. In these instances where the majority of the body is obscured, hands and feet may be exposed. Where ectoplasm is evident, the site of the body from which it is emanating will be photographed whilst the rest of the mediums figure (which may be in a state of partial undress) is shielded from the view of the camera. In these examples, skirts and dresses are removed for the purpose of the taking the image. In some rare instances, women are shown in their undergarments, legs spread, in a pose that seems both simultaneously medical and pornographic. Outside of this setting, such images would of course be inappropriate for the consumption of the general public and yet, under the guise of supernatural communication, they were exempt from many of these judgments. Images which feature ectoplasm coming from the vagina highlight the uneasy relationship between society and the female body. Compared to the male form, the female body has long been a sign of contention or a social taboo. Intimately linked with ideas of purity and femininity, it has long been the duty of the woman to ensure that her modesty is covered in the presence of men and when in society. The séance room shatters these ideas of appropriateness because it demanded the female submit to the spirt realm. In surrendering herself in this way, she is removed of expectation. Within the context of the image, vaginal images are especially interesting. In the case of Eva Carriere, the vagina was a focal point of her entire performance, which relied heavily on eroticism and, at times, sexual acts. Carriere worked with a female assistant, who would check her vagina prior to every session (often in front of the audience) as a supposed assurance against deception. It is said that at the end of each session, the medium would also call upon a male member of the audience to con-

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duct his own inspection of her (von Schrenck Notzing, 1923). Undoubtedly, this type of titillation invited controversy and there is speculation that sexual activities were also a frequent and expected part of Carriere’s sessions. Although she had been previously exposed as a fraud, it is further interesting to note that, after adding these highly sexualized antics to her routine, the later investigations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were unable to conclude beyond a doubt that she was a fake (Conan Doyle, 1926, pp. 101–103). Although few in number, vaginal examples such as Carriere trend toward that idea that the vagina acts as a conduit to facilitate the relationship between life and death. In this instance, rather than a child being birthed, the vagina is symbolic of spirit being reborn into the natural world. This is linked closely with the idea that female mediums were suffering from hysteria or disorders of the uterus (McGarry, 2008, p. 126). In another sense, they demonstrate that it was not above the psychic medium to employ sexuality and the suggestion of an intimate encounter with the female form to promote business. It is interesting to note that there are no surviving examples of ectoplasm emanating from the tip of the penis, suggesting that male mediums operated a different set of social expectations. To the modern eye, many of the surviving examples of the séance image look staged. For those of us who have become accustomed the clarity which modern camera technology provides, the idea of grainy, out of focus or partially developed images may seem frustrating. This is true even more so than the double exposures we see in the spirit photographs discussed above. Ectoplasm frequently appears emerging from under copious amounts of clothing, itself looking like a bolt of muslin fabric, while in other examples, spirit emanations

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take on the appearance of offal, clay, putty and even crude newspaper cut-outs (Princenthal, 2006, p. 109). As with the spirit images discussed earlier in the chapter however, it does not matter how authentic these examples appear to our contemporary eye. The only thing that is of importance to our interpretation of death and the death narrative when it is read within this frame, is what it tells us about the period in which it was made and what it reveals about the beliefs of its subjects. In both instances, what we see evidence of in this genre of death image is a profound sense of social loss and uncertainty. This is not only the product of a massive loss of life due to military conflict, but also the breakdown of many of the social pillars concerned with religion. The ever-increasing popularity of the scientific, along with breakthroughs in medical science and a more comprehensive understanding of the human body (especially in regard to life and death) had long been corroding the public trust in religious doctrines. Spiritualism arose almost as a panacea to the friction, an attempt to bridge the emerging schism, so that religion and science might co-exist (Princeenthal, 2006, p. 106). Despite a cultural shift away from romantic death narratives and religious observance, human grief demands a type of closure which scientific concepts of death were often unable to satisfy. The loss of a loved one commanded, among other things, a narrative through which they might find comfort in the knowledge of a peaceful afterlife for the deceased. In the current day, this continues to be true, as evident in the continuing effort to prove the existence of spirits. From time to time, this encompasses the use of still photography, although as technology has improved media such as video and sound recording have become more prominent. Opposition to the existence of spirits and an afterlife also continues and has become perhaps more prominent as society retreats

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away from organized religions of any kind, and despite our investigations of the more spiritual belief systems.

3.6. CONCLUSION Viewing examples of spirit photography with the inherent cynicism of a contemporary eye, it is difficult, at times, to imagine how and why people were able to convince themselves of the authenticity of such images. The Spiritualist movement in general is received in the present day with a certain amount of skepticism, but this is unfair. During the peak of its popularity, the religion represents a fascinating example of the ways in which ideas of life, death and afterlife were being restricted in response to a growing friction between theology and science. As inventions such as the telegraph and electricity began to change the face of society, and religious doctrines were challenged by theories of evolution, many people felt compelled to find a happy medium. Spiritualism was an attempt to bridge these two, seemingly incompatible belief systems (Firenze, 2004, p. 70). This chapter has briefly examined the evolution of spirit photography and its relationship to the wider Spiritualist community. In considering the composition of many spirit images, I have outlined how the semiotics common to most forms of spirit photography and how these were used to convey specific ideas about death and the afterlife. The overwhelming message which spirit photographs convey is that the living yearned to maintain a connection with the dead, not only did they hope that the deceased were keeping watch over them in this life, but that they would be waiting for them at the moment of their own deaths. In addition, these images are indicative of the quest for the Spiritualist movement to link religious belief with scientific

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belief, in opposition to a societal fracture away from religious doctrines. The next chapter, and those following, will make a profound move away from these romanticized visions of death and the afterlife, away from the notion of otherworldly reunion or the union of science and religion, to consider some of the harrowing ways that death has been captured on film. In these examples, viewers witness a human desire to try and control death, a fascination with ownership of the corpse, and finally, the attempt to divorce emotion from death entirely.

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PICTORIAL INSERTS

Image 5. Mourning Photograph of a Small Child (Unidentified). Tintype 4.5 × 5.1 cm (in case).

Note: This example has been dated between 1860 and 1900, at which time mourning photographs were at the peak of their popularity. The ornate case suggests that this was a cherished memento. That the larger image has been cropped to focus specifically on the face of the child would also indicate its purpose as a piece of mourning ephemera. In many examples, a lock of the child’s hair would also be kept, creating a tangible memento in which image and touch combine to create a conduit between living and dead. Source: Library of Congress.

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Image 6. Mother and Deceased Child Dated Between 1860 and 1870. Carte de Viste 10 × 6 cm card.

Note that the child has been posed upright in the lap of the mother to give the appearance of sleeping. Source: Library of Congress.

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Image 7. Study of a Dead Child – 1868. Photographer: Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879). Albumen Silver Print 21.5 × 34.5 cm.

Photographing the body in profile was a technique sometimes used to hide decomposition. It also suggests that the subject is asleep, although the fact that the child is deceased is indicated in the crossing of the arms over the chest. The abundance of flowers placed atop the body and circling it are also indicative of death. Their presence would have served both an aesthetic and practical purpose, as flowers were frequently employed to mask the smell of decomposition. Source: Image courtesy of the Getty Museum Open Content Program.

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Image 8. A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg 1863. Photographed by Alex Gardner (and team).

Although this image has a look of authenticity, Gardner and his team arranged the bodies of fallen soldiers with the specific intent of achieving an image which was visually arresting. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 9. The Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg 1863. Photographed by Alex Gardner (and team).

Several different interpretations of this image were captured, each posing the body in slightly different positions. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 10. Bodies Awaiting Mass Burial at Nazi-German Belsen Concentration Camp, 15 April 1945.

In this style of atrocity image, which has become synonymous with the events of World War II, bodies have clearly been assigned into anonymous graves for mass burial. The emaciated state of the victims has removed any identifying marks which might make someone recognizable. In fact, they appear almost genderless. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 11. Civil War Embalmer at Work

A Civil War embalmer working on a corpse. As you can see from the hasty set up and the tent, during this period, those practicing the art of embalming would work close to the battle fields in order to access bodies. These would then be embalmed and photographed for publicity. Although this seems dishonorable to contemporary standards, it was essential to the development of the practice. Source: Shutterstock.

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The following three images show Jesse James after his death. James was killed by Robert Ford on 3 April 1882. Prior to this he had enjoyed notoriety as an outlaw figure. Image one is an example of an illustrated death portrait. Note that James has been groomed and is depicted laying on a pillow. Like most death portraits, the focus is on his face and, in this instance, the wound that killed him. The image is not emotive but suggests that it has been recorded as proof of death. James was a figure of notoriety during the period, so it is not unlikely that his death would have been a prominent news story. Images such as these could easily be posted or retained by the collector in a photograph album.

Image 12. Jesse James Death Card Jesse James Death Card. Source: Shutterstock.

Example 1 is an artistic rendering of the death image. This could be reproduced for distribution to either law enforcement or as a collectable item.

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Image 2 shows James in the process of being prepared for burial. Unlike the other images, he is not clothed in this shot, though he has been covered with a blanket for modesty. Again, the staging of the photograph suggest that it was used proof that the outlaw had been killed.

Image 13. Jesse James in Coffin. Circa 1882. Source: Shutterstock.

The final image shows James prepared for his burial. While he has been removed from the simple pine coffin and a cravat has been added to his attire, he is still without a belt, coat or jacket. Although the body has been prepared, only minimal care has been shown, and when compared to more intimate death portraits of family members, there is a clear lack of emotion present in these images.

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Image 14. Jesse James Dressed for Burial. Circa 1882. Source: Library of Congress.

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Image 15. The Dalton Gang Kansas, 1892.

The Dalton Gang (aka The Dalton Brothers) were an outlaw gang active in the Old West between 1890 and 1892. Their crimes were generally related to stagecoach and bank robberies. They are featured here immediately after their murder, the image acting as both proof of death and public warning. After the death of these four members, a fifth man (Emmett Dalton) was tried and convicted of an attempted bank robbery. He served 14 years in prison. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 16. Bronson Murray. Photographer: William Mumler.

This is one example of Mumler’s standard spirit photograph. The subject, Bronson Murray, is being contacted by his wife, who had also been photographed by Mumler during her life. In comparing her stance and appearance in this image with those taken previously, commonalities which suggest reuse or old negatives are difficult to avoid. Source: Getty Museum Open Content Program.

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Image 17. Double Exposure of a Female Medium, Circa 1901. Photographer: S. W. Fallis, Chicago.

This image and the following are indicative of another form of popular spirit photography. In these examples, the living figure in the center of the image is commonly a medium, while the disembodied aparritions are indicative if channeling capabilities. Note that the people featured include well-known members of society. This suggests that a skilled medium possesses the skill to communicate even with the departed souls of the famous. As we will see in later chapters, death and fame have also retained a long partnership. Source: Library of Congress.

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Image 18. John K. Hallowell and 15 Other Faces, Circa 1901. Photographer: S. W. Fallis, Chicago.

All existing examples of this variation on the spirit medium have been deemed “forgeries,” created through the use of superimposition. Source: Library of Congress.

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Image 19. Medium Eva C

French Medium, Eva C. during a séance 1913. Note the piece of clothing covering her genitalia. Eva C was notorious for excreting ectoplasm from all of her bodily orifices, notably her vagina. During many of her sessions she removed her garments to better facilitate the channeling process. In this instance, ectoplasm is being omitted in the form of a male figure. Although at the time many of her clients believed her to be authentic, her work as a medium has been declared fake. In instances such as the above, she would employ the use of newspaper cut outs to create the visual effect of people. Source: The Public Domain Review.

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Image 20. Medium Eva C

Eva C during another session. In this image she is clothed, but you will notice the ectoplasm (which appears like linen cloth) coming from her shirt and under her skirts. This was a common phenomenon at her sessions. Source: The Public Domain Review.

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Image 21. Spirit Photograph for Stereoscope Circa 1880. No Details Pertaining to the Identity of the Subjects Exist. Source: Library of Congress.

Image 22. Stereoscope Viewer

Images were placed into the front of the holder, which could be extended to account for individual need. Upon placing the device to the eyes, images appeared as though three dimensional. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 23. Accidental Spirit Photograph G.S. Smallwood, 1905.

The double exposure of the two women nursing their children is indicative of the type of process which occurred when glass plates were improperly cleaned. This created the appearance of “extras” when new images were taken. It has commonly been suggested that most spirit photographs employed this technique, or some variation of it, when producing spirit likenesses. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 24. Lynching of Frank McManus Minneapolis, Minnesota 28 April 1882.

This image is taken in front of a local courthouse, where it is estimated that over 1,000 people gathered to see the corpse of the deceased. Judging from the stance of those in the foreground of the photograph it must be assumed that they were aware of a photographer working on the scene. In all likelihood, this image would have been produced and sold immediately after the event. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 25. Anonymous Lynching Victim. Circa 1925.

Note that in this instance the victim has been hung with a chain, as opposed to a rope. In many instances of mob attended lynching, the body would be pillaged after death and grim mementoes such as chain and rope would be taken as souvenirs. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 26. Body of James Brown Pictured here during the Godfather of Soul James Brown Harlem Memorial Viewing, Apollo Theater, New York, NY, December 28, 2006

Access to Brown’s body allowed fans to pose for photographs alongside the late singer. Although he is dead and clearly cannot exchange pleasantries, for many this would have been their only opportunity to encounter him “in the flesh.” Even in death, the celebrity body holds a potent power. Source: Shutterstock.

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Image 27. Grave of Jim Morrison 2018 Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, 8 September 2018. Source: Racheal Harris.

The constant stream of fans that visit the site necessitates ongoing restorative efforts on within Morrison’s plot as well as on those surrounding it.

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Image 28. Grave of Jim Morrison. Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, 2 May 2019. Source: Racheal Harris.

The site is constantly updated with new flower arrangements and trinkets, which are left by fans as a form of symbolic interaction with the site. Although Morrison’s body cannot be seen, it is still present.

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Image 29. Grave of Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee.

Unlike Morrison’s grave, which is in a public cemetery, Elvis’ is interred alongside his family in the Meditation Garden at Graceland. In order to access his corpse, fans must purchase tickets and participate in a self-guided tour. Not only does this dramatically change their experience of encountering Elvis but is fundamental to perpetuating the cultural memory of Elvis, in which he is an iconic figure as opposed to a flawed individual. Source: Shutterstock.

CHAPTER 4 VIOLENCE

Image 30. Barren tree Source: Shutterstock.

THE LYNCHING PHOTOGRAPH

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A photograph can express a multitude of emotions, many of which are largely dependent on the audience to which it is speaking. Roland Barthes (2000) argues that the image portrays ethnographic details much better than a portrait or any other form of visual media and that, in doing so, has the power to appeal to specific fetishistic desire (p. 30). Over time, the influence of society, along with the setting of both the image and its viewing will also play a role in shaping the response of the audience, as will their own experiences and attitudes about the image’s content. One timeless and universal fact, however, is that photographs are always relics of a past that has existed (Berger, 1980, p. 61) and no matter how difficult their content is to comprehend or reconcile they will continue to exist as proof of actions and places society might prefer to have forgotten or denied. This is not to suggest that difficult content has not always been so, rather it indicates that to see it with fresh eyes can alter the way we think about history on a cultural and personal level. In these examples, the dead haunt the living, as a constant reminder of transgressions for which we can never truly atone. Where previous chapters have discussed the romantic vision of death, the hope of an afterlife reunion, or the fallout from the devastation of war, these images, even in depicting death, have been comprehendible. In the case of war photography specifically, enormous losses of life are heartbreaking to contemplate, but when viewed in the context of military action, are expected and thus, somewhat easier to accept. Similarly, while modern viewers might shudder at the thought of posing alongside a deceased family member in their coffin, or groan at the psychic “making contact” with the spirit world, the motivation behind these actions is timeless. In contrast, death images which take lynching and its victims as their subject, which are the focus of this chapter, challenge and arrest audiences because they are incomprehensible in their brutality.

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4.1. OWNERSHIP OF THE BODY AND THE LYNCHING IMAGE In Ways of Seeing John Berger draws a range of parallels between the appearance of the female form in artwork and, later, portrait photography (2008, p. 45–55). Central to his argument is the idea that, unlike the male body, the female body is unfailing groomed and positioned to appease the male gaze. While they may be willing or unwilling subjects of the image, women never command complete autonomy over the cultural language related to how their bodies are displayed, interpreted, or consumed. When this theory is applied more generally to the display of the body in post-mortem photography, many of the similarities which Berger highlights, particularly in reference to objectification, persist. For, in the post-mortem death photograph, as with the female body in art, the figure is positioned and presented purely for the enjoyment of the living viewer. Stripped of agency in many cases, its singular purpose is to appeal, to provoke sentiment, or to recall memory. When we narrow the scope of post-mortem photographs, limiting our gaze to those examples which depict violent scenes, such as lynching, these same issues of tragedy, consumption and objectification are not only horrifically apparent, but amplified. In these examples, it is not the female form, but the black body which act in service to the morbid desires of the spectator. The fact that it is always a black body which forms the locus of the lynching image is central within this comparison, particularly when we consider the sense of ownership which Berger is discussing relating to the female form. As he details, the female body does not belong to its individual owner, but to those who see and admire it. In most cases this is men, who view women as something desirable, and over which they long to assert dominance and ownership (Berger, 2008: 42). Historically, black skin too has been cast in this role. Since the

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first instances of slavery, the black body was understood as a possession. It was essential to the wealth of white slave owners because it provided labor, but in its strength and endurance, even in the face of brutality and torture, was a constant threat to dominance. It was also threatening in its representation of sexuality. This is a legacy which can still be felt in the present day and which continues to play out in the public eye. While social movements such as Black Lives Matter seek to bring an end to generations of inequity, social media and the entertainment industry are indicative of the deeply problematic relationships between race and gender. We might argue, from a contemporary viewpoint, that the female body has commonly been romanticized rather than brutalized in art, regardless of its display, it is still held in bondage. This may not be as overt as the examples seen in the lynching image, but both offer evidence of the quest for ownership, the human form, held prisoner to the static gaze. The black male body specifically, in its perceived threat to white women (Stewart, 2014: 419), in its virility and in its strength, lives in the lynching image as a direct challenge to the white male gaze.1 In another of his essays, Berger looks at the history of oil painting, with a focus on the content of these works as opposed to the style or specific evolutions within the movement (Berger, 2008: 83–85). In these examples, he suggests that the focal point of the image (be it a bowl of fruit or a domestic scene) is indicative of the sense of ownership which the individual commissioning the work felt over the property which the image captures. In the lynching image a similar sentiment might be read through the combination of capturing the body and the high-volume dissemination of the image. In this instance however, it is not the life of the individual that the perpetrators of the crime are laying claim to, rather it is the death. Death and the ability to deliver it outside the reach of the law, to torture and photograph the individual as that

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death is taking place, is the commodity; and in much the same way as the oil painting, it is that sense of ownership which becomes the focal point. For this reason, the identity of the victim did not need to be retained for the image to have its power. What mattered to those who dealt in the collection and trade of these death images was that the moment did take place and that they were actively a part of it. This perception of influence over life and death masquerades as the same kind of power that the accumulation of possessions communicated in previous eras and across a wide geographical span. In many examples, the concept of ownership can also be read through the attempts of the crowd to destroy the body of the victim. Still, even when it is rendered unrecognizable as a human, the form is never erased from the image. It exists in opposition to the attempts at its destruction, it reminds the viewer that ownership and control are illusionary.

4.2. LYNCHING AND RACE It is impossible to comprehend the meaning of lynching in American history without also understanding American ideas on race, violence, sex, justice and the law (Wood, 2008, p. 6). This has been the approach which many modern considerations of lynching and the use of lynching images in the historic and contemporary context have adopted. While each argument that embraces these concepts has merit and is valuable to discourse on the subject, they can exclude the international audience. For those outside of United States and with no ancestral ties to its history, it is no burden to maintain a moral and ethical distance from the legacy of lynching, but to do so is to fail to acknowledge the relationship which the racial legacy of America has to that of global society, including the heritage of our own countries. One need not be from America

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in order to feel a sense of guilt related to these i­mages. In any colonized land, the progeny of colonial white settlers must confront their own history of racism. In the global community, we can no longer use the excuse of nationality to remove the stain of lynching from the lingering unease which these types of image summon. They are not only photographs that reference a time, place and cultural disconnect in American history, but are part of a larger discourse on race which is ongoing across the globe. Although certain scholarship has called into question whether we ought to engage with lynching images at all, precisely because of the narratives they perpetrate, an alternative viewpoint is to demand that we look upon and confront the reality of what they communicate. This is not a reality that can be atoned for, but it is one in which recognizing accountability can play a powerful role in the racial healing of many communities. Berger’s (1980) belief that the industrialized world is terrified of the past and as such, trends toward opportunism by turning everything into spectacle, employing the lens of the camera (p. 59) echoes this sentiment. It is particularly poignant when looking at lynching photographs or postcards. There is a distinct discomfort that comes with looking at any image that features a victim of lynching. Many of us seek to distance ourselves from such historical photographs, engaging with geographical distance and time as a means of disassociating with the cultural trauma and racial divides of which these images are indicative. Despite such efforts of avoidance, the fact remains that these moment did take place and that, while we would never imagine that an ancestor who is part of our family line could or would be involved in such a moment, captured within these images of torture are many faces in the crowd. Although they may not have been active participants, their presence speaks to a complicity, and it is here that the core of our discomfort lies.

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The following section will briefly consider what lynching images from different historical periods convey about racial identity and race relations in America at the time in which they were produced. This is important to establishing differences in how these images were composed, as well as for discussing some of the motivations behind their dissemination. Following this, I will consider historical guilt in contemporary society more broadly and how this influences the response of modern audiences when they are confronted with these examples of the death image. Finally, I examine the audience within the photograph (collectively) and as contemporary readers of the image (individually). In each section, the enduring theme will be that in any lynching image, what we are faced with is the idea of death made manifest in the torture and execution of another human being. Although different motivations are often provided for how and why a specific lynching was committed, there are untold numbers which have vanished into the ether of time. Ultimately, the excuses behind such abhorrent acts are just that. Lynching is not a punishment for crime, it is an act carried out to terrify and control. Within the history of the death narrative it is a futile attempt to take ownership over the death of another living person – as if in doing so we might somehow avoid our own.

4.3. LYNCHING AND SEGREGATION Historical discussions on lynching have frequently drawn on its use as a form of threat and torture among black communities throughout America, primarily during the Colonial and Antebellum periods. During the Antebellum era, particularly, the motivation behind lynching was, in many instances, reliant upon the dynamic between slave and slave owner. As a form of punishment, lynching was a powerful deterrent

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to other slaves, a warning as to the fate which awaited any individual tempted to flee. It could also be employed to assert ownership over the slave body after death, feeding into the belief that slaves were inferior to whites and did not possess a soul of their own (Warren, 2017, p. 115). As such, even death could not remove them from the servitude to which they had been bound. In other accounts, it was used as a means of punishment for the living. In denying family groups the right to care for and bury the ­bodies of their deceased loved ones, slave owners were able to assert control over their surviving slaves, reinforcing the idea that the rights of any individual in chattel were reliant upon the whims of their owner (Warren, 2017, pp. 117–119). To deny grief and mourning rituals is also to depersonalize the departed, thus feeding into notions of racial inferiority and white dominance. What these motivations largely highlight is the role of lynching in white death narratives, where it appeared as a tool for control. How it was discussed among the black community of the period can only be speculated, although it is not difficult to imagine that it promoted horror and disgust. Accounts of how and why lynching took place during these periods differ, though they are generally told from the white perspective. It is likely that this is the result of discomfort among the black population at that time. Even after the abolishment of slavery, black people were not free and nor were they afforded the same privilege and opportunity as the white population. They had neither the means nor the voice to speak up about these behaviors. For anyone who had lost a loved on to the act of lynching, it is also unlikely that there was a desire to relive the grief of that loss. Throughout the Jim Crow (1877–1950s) era, it became dangerous for blacks to attempt survival in many parts of the United States. Segregation rules enforced division, promoting

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the idea of racial superiority; while the types of available employment ensured that much of the population remained in poverty. During this period a huge number of lynch murders took place, many of which were conducted publicly and drew the attentions of local crowds. The solitary purpose of most of these acts was to provoke fear and terror within the black community (Garland, 2005, p. 803). In these instances, itinerant photographers would often also attend the moment to photograph the event. While some of these images would eventually find their way to national press publications, others became morbid trinkets of death. Known as lynching postcards, they were distributed through the mail publicly, until the postal service refused to carry them (Baker, 2015, p. 38), after which they continued to be exchanged in envelopes of from person to person. While it is easy to believe that this trade was specific to whites, particularly those with grandiose visions of racial supremacy, there is compelling evidence to suggest that they were also terrible mementoes shared between members of the black community (Steward, 2014, p. 422). Due to the ambiguity of ownership in these instances, it is difficult to determine if they were exchanged as confirmation of death or in an effort to keep a record of the social history of injustice.

4.4. LYNCHING IMAGES Photographs demonstrate the vulnerability of lives, of people that are on a path toward their own destruction. The link between the photograph and death haunts all photographs of people (Sontag, 2008, p. 70). Baker (2007, p. 36) describes lynching as “a historical event fundamentally informed by the dynamics of visual and performance aesthetics.” The lynching photograph is a tangible reminder of the violent death

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experienced by untold numbers of black Americans throughout the South. Therefore, the image of the lynched body cannot do anything other than provoke a visceral response in the viewer. As a method of torture and punishment, it represents the ultimate act of humiliation. One of the more detailed studies on this aspect of the topic can be found in Jacqueline Goldsby’s haunting discussion of lynching in American history and culture. Chapter five of her book A Spectacular Secret delves into the history of lynching photography from a cultural perspective, along with the relationship this shares with the history and genesis of the instant camera. What this study reveals is an uneasy relationship between the photographer and the murderer. Perhaps more unsettling than the fact that these acts were perpetrated in public is the fact that keen-eyed profiteers used the distribution of the images as a source of income (Wolff, 2016, p. 131). The common feature among all images which contain a lynching victim is a body, hung by the neck and generally suspended by a tree. In instances of public execution, a platform will sometimes be used, while in other cases, a town bridge or pole has served the unpleasant purpose of hanging (Garland, 2005, p. 805). Depending on the circumstance in which the image has been captured, other forms of mutilation may be evident in the appearance of the corpse. Usually, these injuries will have been inflicted prior to death. In this sense, the image echoes the three-fold purpose outline by Barthes.2 The image captures the damage to the body of the subject, it signals to the audience within the image that death is soon to come; it reminds the contemporary audience that death has taken place. In doing so, it forces the audience to acknowledge the scene of a crime, whilst simultaneously prompting them to attempt to contextualize the reason for the image’s production.

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In many examples, this imbues the image with emotional impact, even decades after its creation. One of the most brutal examples in effect can be seen in the triple image of Frank Embree. Taken on the day of his execution, the images detail the range of wounds Embree endured prior to his eventual public murder. The first two are pre-mortem and show Embree handcuffed and standing on a truck bed, the third is taken after his death and shows his body while it is still suspended from the tree on which he was lynched. In the first two photographs, Embree has been stripped naked and is chained about the wrists. His hands cover his genitals. What captures the eye of the viewer are the cuts and welts that are visible all over his trunk and legs, many of which appear to still be open and weeping. Unlike other photographs which depict victims before they have been murdered, Embree faces the camera with a defiant gaze, despite the pain he has clearly endured. As the focal point and victim, he challenges the photographer and viewer to look away from him (Stewart, 2014,p. 428). In the final image, after he has died, his body retains this sense of defiance. In this shot, a blanket has been haphazardly affixed around his waist to hide the genitalia that his hands can no longer cover. He is surrounded by a mob, many of whom are in very close proximity to the body, and yet they do not seem to look at him, but beyond him. While it would be wrong to condone the actions of these men, or their participation as bystanders, we have to wonder how they felt in the wake of such an act. Was the pride of these accomplices, and others just like them, simply related to participation? How did they tell the story of that death in a way sat comfortably within their own minds? Unlike a state-sanctioned hanging, there is generally a sense of pride that comes from the crowds featured in a lynching image, which adds to the sense of disquiet experienced

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by the viewer. There appears to be no commonality among participants, with many examples featuring white men and boys alongside white women and girls. In many examples, members of the black community are also present. In every example, death is inflicted with the intent of shaming the victim. As written accounts confirm, the victim was always executed in public, their bodies left on display, sometimes for days, until they were cut down and removed from the public eye. Unlike other examples of the death image, there is no sense of peace in these photographs, no sense of finality of conclusion, only a lingering sense of unease. In her discussion of lynching photography, Margaret Schwartz focuses on the use of the lynching image as a precipitator of social and cultural change (Schwartz, 2015, pp. 53–83). Using the examples of Emmett Till (in relation to the civil rights movement) and Hamza al-Khateeb (in relation to the more recent atrocities in Syria), Schwartz draws on the atrocity image and its use in the media to discuss how the implementation and dissemination of these images creates a public body, which renders the individual anonymous as their individuality is eclipsed by the powerful message which the image serves. In these examples, by disseminating atrocity, the public become aware of the need for intervention into social issues within their own immediate and, more recently, ­global communities. Similarly, Courtney R. Baker (2015) looks beyond the initial act which of murder which took the life of Till, toward an assessment of what the media coverage in the wake of his death and funeral meant to shifting discourse about lynching in American society (p. 69). Tracing the use of images throughout the process of burying Till and prosecuting those responsible for taking his life (and their subsequent acquittal), Baker completes a more personalized and comprehensive narrative around the way in which confrontational and devastating imagery of unjustified death can continue to

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mock the victim (Baker, 2015, p. 93) and their surviving family members long after a body has been interred. These aftereffects become interwoven with memory and history, so that the dead are never at peace, but linger on the periphery of a larger collective vision. Like Schwartz, Jason Morgan Ward highlights the link between atrocity images and pertinent issues of global concern. Specific to his study is establishing the connection between increased participation in lynch mobs and the murder of black Americans and the end of both World War I and World War II. While Ward (2017) does not aim to suggest that either of these wars was directly responsible for encouraging vigilante justice, in both cases the end of the war coincided with a protracted increase in lynching victims (p. 232).

4.5. HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY GUILT Humans like to distance themselves from many of the immoral behaviors which human society allows. This is particularly true of those who are abhorrent. Whether these behaviors are contemporary or historically abhorrent seems to make little difference, and we are always seeking separation from the sins of our forebears (Kempf, 2016, p. 115). In instances where such behaviors have been caught on film (and lynching is the example which has been used in this chapter but is not the only one) the static image continues to arrest by confronting its audience with the tragic truth of our collective human nature, the truth that human perpetuated atrocities have always haunted us. Although we, as individual selves, may be sickened or repulsed by specific acts, while they grate on our moral and ethical ideas about ourselves, we cannot look away. Beneath these images there is a silent knowing

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that we are part of a larger whole, in which such atrocity has been allowed to occur. We must bear witness. In the lynching image we confront the worst of human nature: fear, prejudice and hatred. We confront an endless human preoccupation with mortality and our attempt to control it. Our sense of shame though, comes from the recognition that at some time in life we have all been bystanders to a collective cruelty, it is the burden of our human nature. For the contemporary viewer, this makes these images more difficult to negotiate either rationally or emotionally. There is no reason that the act of lynching, let alone capturing of the event, should take place other than that people took some joy from it. In saying people, we must invariably refine our view to white people. This is not an event which took place in response to a military doctrine, it was and is a practice which has been enacted in response to a multitude of racial undercurrents that continue to have a pervasive role in American culture. The racial connotations, the social significance, the suffering which these images contain, seems almost as if it is part of some far-distant past, and yet, these examples are generally less than 150 years old. In some cases, less than 100.

4.6. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE AND THE DEATH NARRATIVE It is important to remember that for the lynched victim, death was only the end of their life. It signified the beginning of a problematic existence for the body left behind. This is the body captured in the examples of lynching postcards, which were bought and traded throughout America during the Jim Crow era. In the beginning of this chapter, I considered how lynching

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could be used as a symbol of ownership over the body, but this is only part of the picture. As society began to turn more prominently away from segregation images of lynching victims, particularly those in high-profile cases, were used by the press as a means of highlighting the prevalence of the act in the Southern United States. Published nationally, images such as those of Emmett Till were splashed across the front pages of broadsheets across the country with the aim of enacting outrage and prompting social change (Baker, 2015, p. 83; Schwartz, 2015, pp. 56–57). As calls for the perpetrators of lynching murders to be tried and convicted for their crimes became more prominent, the black community began to use the desecrated corpses of their loved ones as a site of protest (Ward, 2017, p. 246). While this would have been an unimaginably hard decision to make, viewed from a cultural context it sends a powerful message about the how the shame of the crime can be viewed. A refusal to claim ownership over the body and to enact cultural death rites for the deceased can be read as a powerful act of rebellion against the class system responsible for allowing such a brutal manner of death to not only take place, but to do so without legal recourse (Garland, 2005, p. 801). This act of renunciation in itself is a powerful death narrative, and one of the few examples which considers the perspective of this manner of death from the viewpoint of the black community. Although it might seem impossible to consider refusing to reclaim the corpse of a loved one, this makes an incredibly strong statement and one which pushes back on any sense of ownership which the perpetrators of lynching where trying to demonstrate. In holding the same community that would sanction a murder accountable for the interment of the body, the family of the deceased were reclaiming ownership of the death story.

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4.7. THE AUDIENCE WITHIN In recent years there have been a range of touring exhibitions which have taken lynching as their focal point.3 Of these, Without Sanctuary is perhaps the most widely toured and recognizable. It has also spawned a number of special edition journals and stand-alone academic articles which take its delivery and curation as a focal point, as much as the content of the images it portrays. Owing to this existing field of scholarship, I will not go into an abundance of detail here in relation to either the purpose of the exhibition of the criticisms it has faced. What this and similar exhibitions have highlighted is a public unease around the role of the lynching photograph as both a historical image and form of commentary. What they have engaged with less is a consideration of the composition of the image and how it might be read in relation to the comment it makes specifically about death. Lynching was so often perpetrated with the explicit purpose of attracting an audience. In most cases, it is the public gaze which gives the act meaning and horror, and which gives those responsible their sense of power over the victim. It is difficult to look at lynching images in the present day without the risk of returning to that sense of spectacle (Wood, 2008, p. 16). In this capturing, there are distinct elements of pride (among those responsible for orchestrating the lynching) and varying elements of torment, grim fascination or disgust from those in the audience. When we shift our focus to the bystander, the lynching image opens up a new avenue through which we can view the way that death has been captured in the visual narrative of the photograph. While the identity of the deceased may not be known to audiences in the present, it is more than likely that the those involved in the act of the lynching and the posing, construction, distributions and collection of these images were well acquainted with

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both the identity of the deceased and their alleged crimes. This gives the death a personal identity, one that is missing from images of large-scale atrocity and war. This changes the way the images are read and received by the viewer. Unlike the victim, the audience within retains their sense of anonymity, despite the fact that their faces are often clearly visible. It is these faces, their expressions, along with the stance of the participants that form much of how the audience without will read an image.

4.8. THE AUDIENCE WITHOUT Jean Kempf states that death cannot truly be engaged from the safe position of the spectator. When we view these images, in the gallery, online, in print or on the television, we remain removed from the sights, smells and sounds which accompany a physical closeness. This fact undoubtedly changes our perspective (Kempf, 2016, pp. 122–123). In the case of a war image, the illusion of distance between us and the battle scene is enacted via the distance of time, geographical location and gender. These battles were fought on far away fields, by men most viewers will never know and for freedoms that contemporary society have often fail to register. In contrast, in the image of a lynched body, we cannot use these things to seek shelter. Such images force us to question how we might react if we were to see such a thing in person. To confront the truth that perhaps we too would become relegated to a position of complicity, out of fear or the sway of mob mentality. Perhaps what is most unsettling is the fact that the image of the lynched body may be a moment from the past, but it is not a relic. As several commentators have noted, the act of viewing lynching images within the gallery setting provokes vulnerability and awkwardness from the audience (Harris, 2006, p. 130) because historic lynching images drag the past

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into the present time, they confront audiences with the unsettling but undeniable truth that what they reveal is not a mentality that has been abandoned to the annals of some bygone era, but one which is alive and thriving in contemporary societies across the globe. It is part of a communal memory, which forces us to question what we see when we look at an image ­(Huppauf, 1997, p. 13, 15). Accounts of audience responses have demonstrated that visitors to these exhibitions frequently feel compelled to offer comfort to each other because of the confrontational nature of these images (Wolff, 2016, p. 138). Leaving sentiments in guest books which express a sense of shame for racial crimes of the past as well as the racial relationships of the present is also common (Kempf, 2016, p. 199). These responses, while not surprising, do provide in interesting insight into how we look at, process and narrate images of death which is the result of lynching. For the modern audience, lynching photography undeniably highlights a long and tragic struggle for autonomy and agency, ­exposing the racial hierarchies which continue to be problematic throughout the greater United States (Baker, 2015, p. 35). Despite the difficulty that comes with viewing these images, they remain an integral and essential part of the historical narrative (Goldsby, 2006, p. 219). To refuse to see them would be infinitely worse.

4.9. CONCLUSION The aesthetics of the lynching image speak to a fascination with the appearance of death, when death is the result of human hands. Part of the attraction which exists around the lynching image is that it suggests a relationship in which the living have agency over death, that they can dictate when and how it is delivered. While there are undoubtedly other factors

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at play, including those related to racism and the need to exert dominance over another human, at their core, lynching images are a terrible reminder of the ways in which humans engage with the specter of death in service of their own morbid fascinations with it. These photographs differ from war images not in that they are not brutal, but in their sense of almost being unreal. When we gaze upon images of the battlefield and witness such extreme loss of life, it is not an individual sadness that fills us but a national one. We grieve not for the singular, but the communal body and for all that its death symbolizes in society. Goldsby (2006, p. 241) suggests that in the audience of the lynching photograph we see the human preoccupation with death articulated most clearly. This is a fascination and morbid curiosity which has not abated.

NOTES 1.  While women have not been immune to the crime of lynching, photographic evidence of the female body is more limited than male examples. It was for this reason that the images I chose to discuss within this chapter, as well as those included in the pictorial section preceding it, were focused exclusively on men. 2.  Barthes suggests that every photograph is an object of three emotions, or three intentions. It asks us to look, to see and (in having seen) to undergo a transformation (Camera Lucidia, 2000, p.9). In the case of the lynching image, this transformation is linked to the sense of horror and sadness that we feel when we look upon the victim, see the circumstances of their death, and understand that we are looking at the atrocity of a murder. 3.  Recent exhibitions have included: New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War (2006–2007), Ahistoric Occasion (2007), The Struggle Against Lynching (permanent display), Silent Witness: Recent Work by Ken Gonzales-Day (2011).

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CHAPTER 5 OWNERSHIP

Image 31. Clap board Source: Shutterstock.

CELEBRITY DEATH 129

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Chapter 4 suggested that for the audience of the lynching photograph there is a sinister pornography in death. Gazing at the broken body of the victim promotes a visceral response in which audiences (particularly contemporary) feel disgusted in the atrocity of the act of lynching and the murder of the victim, but also captivated by the image of the deceased. The intent of the image is to provide the viewer a sense of power over the subject (perhaps racially motivated) or over death itself (a false sense of control because the victim of the crime has died as the direct result of human hands as opposed to the natural order). There is also evidence of this when we can see the faces of spectators and participants at the lynching. Similarly, if the victim has been the subject of a “before” shot, in which they were alive it is possible to measure the change in audience response. Although the names and circumstances of many lynching victims will forever be lost to the past, as viewers of these photographs in the present, we must still take some ownership over the image of their demise, which exists as part of the continuing cultural heritage of which we are all intrinsically a part. Subjects in any kind of death photograph cheat death to some degree, they live forever in the captured moment of such images, to be consumed millions of times over by future audiences, not only in a quest so that we might better understand that which has gone before, but because we are, always, in the process of confronting the certainty of our own mortality. This chapter examines this theme from a different perspective, although one which is related to the sense of control that is evident in the lynching image. In this instance, focus rests on the concept of ownership of the body. My assessment begins with a broad consideration of the currency of ­celebrity in contemporary society. I suggest that celebrities, while they may appear to be deities of the modern age, are another form of chattel. In this instance, their servitude is masked by the

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wealth and social status which they are afforded, but the loss of autonomy which they represent is undeniably linked to a specific form of slavery. The adoration of the fans which emulate and worship the celebrity idol can quickly turn to judgment and disdain. This is particularly evident when the celebrity figure fails to live up to the ideals their audience have set for them. This is as true for life as it is for death. In cases where sudden death, by either suicide or misadventure, occur, it invites the moral judgments and scorn which are frequently expressed in public commentary. In the act of dying, the celebrity body becomes public property. It seems to be what is owed by the celebrity for departing the mortal world before the public has deemed this departure appropriate. In response, death images become the conduit through which the entire person of the celebrity is dissected for public discourse. To demonstrate this point, I will look at a selection of examples, which consider different types of celebrity death and the response which the public has expressed toward the body in relation to the scenario in which death occurred. Whether the body is overtly exposed or hidden beneath the protective shield of a body bag is largely inconsequential. In the final section of the chapter, I consider how the body continues to be used within death narratives and death images even after it has permanently been removed from public scrutiny. The act of photographing celebrity grave sights acts as a substitute for photographing the body itself and often these sites become substitute places of fan worship. This is after the initial criticism of the celebrity has passed and the death narrative has been rewritten, with the shortcomings of the celebrity figure either amplified or expunged from the public memory. Photography is unique in that it is a record or proof of something having been (or been seen), whilst also being a conduit for continued visitation (in which we might revisit

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or review) a place or person (Lennon, 2018, p. 585). Linda Levitt (2010, p. 63) suggests that in celebrity culture there is a liminal space between death and burial, and it is here that the public determine the contribution and impact of the celebrity figure. It is during this time that much of the posthumous popularity of the celebrity will be determined. As we have seen in the tragic deaths of figures such as Elvis, John Lennon, John Belushi, Kurt Cobain, Tupac or Prince, the manner of death can also overshadow or eclipse the life of the individual. Tragic or taboo deaths form the basis of the posthumous career, in which the celebrity may go on to have earning potential, but the manner of death continues to be the main reference point for any future biographical discussions. Although Elvis was a tireless performer and generous supporter of many different charities, his death has become a form of cultural marker around which the rest of his life rotates. Taboo and, in many respects embarrassing, it has become a punchline for a multitude of jokes as well as a fable for the dangers of excess and excessive fame. Similarly, despite years of discussing the negative impact of drugs, the death of Prince from a Fentanyl overdose in 2016 has forever tarnished the extensive discourse he had been having with fans, through the medium of his music, for more than four decades. Despite being an advocate for leading a clean life, Prince’s death has come to highlight the enduring issues around over-­prescription of medications and an increasing cultural reliance on self-­medication. Representing a counter-narrative, John Belushi and Chris Farley have each become tragic emblems of the conclusion for a life lived in excess; their deaths acting as cautionary tales of the inevitable outcome of surrendering to the dark side of fame. Finally, Kurt Cobain (just one in a long line of male ­musicians who have taken their lives) has become a talking point for the problem of mental illness, while Tupac Shakur’s death continues to spawn conspiracy theories of murder and

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retribution. In the music industry particularly, the endemic issue of mental health and gang-affiliated violence has been so long lauded as a prerequisite for artistic success that it has become glamorized.

5.1. OWNERSHIP OF THE CELEBRITY BODY In the wake of the celebrity death, Radford and Bloch (2015, p. 109) suggest that fan mourning rituals allows for the individual to engage with a more dramatic and emotional form of grief than might be appropriate after the death of a friend or family member. Similarly, Foltyn (2008) and Davis (2010) have suggested that societal taboos around death are relaxed when it is a celebrity that dies. The connection which fans feel toward certain celebrity figures is not purely an act of idolatry but is important in the way that they shape their view of themselves (Radford & Bloch, 2015, p. 108). As the vast majority of fan to celebrity relationships are based around para-social interaction, it can be difficult to accept that the celebrity figure has died. As is the case with many high-profile figures, death ensures that their image is recirculated often and widely throughout the press, complicating the grief process to some degree. In gazing upon the death image, fans are forced to confront the mortality of their idols and to begin to transition into a narrative for the death of the celebrity figure. Depending on the circumstances of the death and the variations of death photograph, this can become a narrative of ownership, in which the fan feels both a sense of responsibility for the celebrity figure (which may manifest in public outcry about the use of images which portray them in a negative light) or a sense of ownership (although there is something deeply unsettling about the death image, it needs to be seen for the death to be absorbed and for acceptance to commence). It is

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the frames we apply to our thinking about the celebrity corpse that change in accordance with its fame (Foltyn, 2016, p. 246), determining how they are grieved and the rituals which are enacted by fans as part of this process. When discussing the use or misuse of the celebrity image, different rules of consent apply than in other genres of death photograph. This is true for the celebrity in death as it has been in life. The continued sense of ownership which fans feel for the celebrity, coupled with the fact that any celebrity death can be perceived as a “news story” renders the issue of consent a moot point. Legally, the celebrity has few rights in how their image can be used if it is captured in the public forum. This is equally true of unflattering tabloid images as it is of death images. When the celebrity dies in public or has their body removed in front of a crowd, it is invariable that photographs will result. This does raise a range of ethical issues however, which force us to consider if these images should be used. One of the most controversial settings in which the celebrity body is frequently photographed is during corpse removal. While the dignity of the deceased is usually maintained through the use of a sheet or body bag, the throng of paparazzi, fans and rubberneckers that invade the site of a celebrity death, at times impeding the attempts of medical professionals to render care, is representative of the chaotic and frenzied sense of ownership which the public directs toward the celebrity corpse.

5.2. BODY REMOVAL The deaths of John Belushi and, later Chris Farley, continue to attract public interest. Unlike the previously mentioned ­musical figures, Belushi and Farley’s deaths were taboo because each celebrity appeared to have been courting death through their careless lifestyle. Belushi died of a drug overdose while

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staying at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood in 1981 (Belushi Pisano & Colby, 2005, p. 260). He was remembered for his unique comedic style, which incorporated the use of his entire body and focused on his physicality and obesity, as much as he was for his drug use and hard partying lifestyle. Belushi’s body was removed from his bungalow room in front of hordes of waiting press photographers. Like so many celebrities before him (and since), he was covered by a body bag and taken away by ambulance. Images of the scene show a melee, in which fans, passers-by and police officials, crush around the stretcher as it is loaded into an ambulance. The shape of Belushi’s rotund figure is undeniable and in many of the images, photographers stand centimeters from it, with telephoto lenses pressed almost into the fabric. These final images have since become the punctuation of the late actors “live fast, die young” lifestyle. As accounts of his death detail, Belushi had been dead long before an ambulance was called to the scene. Later images from his funeral show an elaborate casket, which is accompanied by several of Belushi’s celebrity friends. Actor Dan Aykroyd is visible in many of these and appears to be crying as he leads the funeral cortège from the church. In another scene, Bill Murray places a flower atop the casket. What is evident here is that, as a beloved and idolized celebrity figure, Belushi was denied the right to standard death and burial rituals. In addition to his own fame, the celebrity status of many mourners attracted additional press and fan attention. There is a clear sense of ownership over his celebrity corpse and over his death scene. This is not the only example of possessive public behaviors. The death of Chris Farley, nearly 15 years later, along with the advent of the internet meant that the limited privacy afforded to his idol was quickly becoming a thing of the past.

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5.3. SCENE OF THE CRIME In the 1990s, Farley was described as “the next John Belushi” (Hedegaard, 1998) and, like his idol, he too would die young, with images of his death appearing not only in the news media, but online. Unlike the exposure which Belushi’s death attracted fifteen years prior, when images are disseminated online, they exist in perpetuity. While Farley is not the only celebrity to have suffered this fate, photographs of his death are particularly troubling because they document the event with an almost clinical precision. Whereas the morgue photographs of John Lennon and Tupac (who will be discussed in the following section) show the body in a cold and clinical light, in the case of Farley there is an added element of the taboo because these images are taken before the arrival of the coroner, when his body was still within the home. They are unflattering, visceral images, in which his bloated corpse is contorted in early stages of rigor mortis, foam can clearly be seen around his mouth. In his hand, he grips a rosary. His obese, semi-clothed body lays prone. The Farley death scene photographs demystify the idea of the glamor of celebrity in that they graphically depict the outcome of his long-term drug abuse. There is, of course, a tragedy in this removal of dignity and yet, as Foltyn (2008) has suggested, the fact that an audience is drawn to these images is indicative of our greater urge to see everything when it is a celebrity that dies. When the celebrity figure dies in a taboo circumstance, the death image becomes an object of forbidden desire. There is a fiscal incentive for members of the public to attempt to capture this image, while for fans, it is part of the acceptance process to want to see it. Unlike witnessing the death of a loved one or intimate partner, in the case of the celebrity we can see a sense of ownership as fans, and as the perpetrators of the para-social bonds which we share with

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these figures, we feel a sense of entitlement, a desire, to know the details of their final moments. Reading Farley’s death scene alongside his documented adoration for Belushi, what the death image also illustrates in this instance is Farley as both celebrity and fan. It is difficult to determine what his response was to the death scene photos published of Belushi a little over a decade earlier. Due to the amount of press which his death attracted however, it is reasonable to assume that he was familiar with them. As a self-confessed fan, it is likewise reasonable to assume that Farley enacted his own mourning ritual for his idol. Either consciously or subconsciously, his exposure to Belushi’s death image would have been entwined with this. It is a strange case of life imitating art that his own demise would then ultimately mirror that of his greatest hero. Despite the adoration which we often feel for them in life, it is easy to look upon the celebrity death image with scorn or contempt, but what we should be taking note of is the distinctly human elements of celebrity death, which are not too far removed from the narratives of any other member of society. In his essay “The Pornography of Death,” Geoffrey Gorer argued that mass media and its proliferation of violent images was a mechanism through which death was made taboo. Specifically, its over exposure made death something which society did not want to discuss. While when we think of violence the first images which often spring to mind are those of conflict and war, I argue that over exposure to the glamorization of drug abuse and alcoholism have had similar effects on contemporary audiences. When we look upon the image of Farley’s corpse, it is difficult not to feel a sense of this pornography – in that we are consuming images that not only dishonor the deceased but that highlight the kind of addictive lifestyles which society increasingly ignores. Viewers ought

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not to want to see another human (celebrity or not) in this moment. Still, like pornography of the sexual variety, there is a pull toward death, a lure which is virtually impossible to ignore; because Farley is a public figure, we are not just interested in seeing his death, but feel that we have a right to it. This pornographic death concept has been revisted in more recent decades (Berridge, 2001, pp. 246–248; Gibson, 2007, p. 417), as death is increasingly part of the social media and mass media experience. In the case of the celebrity, media coverage and press bias about the death will dictate the social narrative and in turn, become influential to how the memory narrative of that figure is constructed. As an enduring example, we can look toward Kurt Cobain and Tupac Shakur, whose respective deaths have resulted in starkly different though no less prominent death narratives.

5.4. SUICIDE AND AUTOPSY PHOTOGRAPHS In life, celebrities are considered public property. The enduring popularity of the tabloid press and its abundance of publications, are proof of this fact. Celebrity is desirable because of the material goods, wealth and glamor which it pretends to provide. In exchange for that, the celebrity figure surrenders their autonomy and anonymity. As this is becoming an expectation in life, it is little wonder that the same is expected of the celebrity corpse after death. Adding to this expectation is the increasing intrusion of photographic and social media (Foltyn, 2016, p. 249), which increasingly provides access to images which would have previously remained unseen by those outside the immediate friend and family circles of the celebrity figure. The emergence of death images on the internet, particularly when they give evidence of a violent death (or murder or suicide) resurrect these celebrity figures, only so that they suffer a second

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kind of death – one of public dissection. In the instance of the autopsy photograph, this second death can be particularly brutal, as well as the inspiration for resurrection narratives.

5.5. KURT COBAIN Since his suicide in 1994, Kurt Cobain has retained his status as a cultural and musical icon, becoming the poster-boy for disenfranchized youth around the globe. Although Cobain was a highly photographed figure prior to this death, it is the photographs from the scene of his suicide which have played a prominent role in the creation of his posthumous celebrity identity. On the morning of April 5, 1994, Cobain died in his Seattle home, from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head (Cross, 2014, p. 342). Existing photographs from the scene are grainy, showing Cobain’s removal from the property on a covered stretcher. Both police officers and paramedics are in attendance as he is loaded into an ambulance. Other photographs from the scene show a living area in disarray and drug paraphernalia scattered around the body. It was widely known that Cobain was a heroin addict and had been seeking treatment for this, along with other forms of mental illness at the time of his death. Although graphic photographs of the body are also thought to exist, these have been kept largely from the view of the public. Partial images, showing his legs, arm and mid-section can be found online, although these do not depict the extent of his fatal wound. In his biography of Cobain, Charles Cross describes the scene as chaotic, with Cobain’s body horribly disfigured (although not unrecognizable) from the gunshot wound. As he had lain undiscovered for as long as 24 hours, the body was also suffering from rigor mortis and the gun used in the suicide has to be pried from Cobain’s grip (Cross, 2014, p. 345).

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The pervasive popularity of Cobain’s persona is important to consider when assessing the enduring power of these image. Although in this instance the crime scene photograph acts as proof of his death, fans have been unable to accept the cause of his demise. Long-term conspiracy theories suggest that another party was ultimately responsible for pulling the trigger on the rifle which killed Cobain. In many cases, the prime suspect is Cobain’s widow and fellow celebrity, Courtney Love (Halperin & Wallace, 2004, pp. 284–285). In this instance, it is not the body that fans seek to take ownership of through the image in as much as it is the narrative itself which they use the image to shape to their liking. All death is difficult to endure when it has involved a person or figure to whom we feel a close personal bond. It is impossible to identify precisely why fans have responded this way to Cobain, despite having death images at their disposal. Cobain has undergone an interesting online resurrection. The public fascination which has led to this second life can be viewed as one example of fans creating souvenirs from the body of the celebrity (Penfold-Mounce, 2016, p. 29). Fans continue to discuss him in forums and use his image in art, but most interesting is his rebirth in real person fanfiction (RPF) narratives. In many of the examples which have appeared in fan-run forums such as Archive of Our Own, Cobain’s likeness is objectified in narratives which see him subjected to physical abuse, rape and violence. That these fictional encounters are constructed by, and often at the behest of, fans presents an unsettling insight into the longevity of ownership and the blurred boundaries which surround the use and misuse of the celebrity image. This theme is not central to Cobain but continues to be an issue throughout RPF more broadly (Piper, 2015). As the platform grows, it remains to be seen how ethical and moral boundaries will be enforced (or not) on RPF platforms.

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5.6. TUPAC Musician and actor, Tupac Shakur is another celebrity figure whose death photographs have played a key role in the construction of his posthumous legacy, again forming the basis for urban legends and conspiracies which deny that he has died. Unlike Cobain, Shakur was a more mercurial personality, as divisive as he was inspirational. While many celebrities construct their public persona around the idea of criminality, Shakur was a particularly troubling example of the “live by the sword, die by the sword” mentality that was popular within the rap music scene of the early nineties.1 Convicted and sent to prison on rape charges and embroiled in a murder case, Shakur had a history of violent behavior, which was reflected in the lyrics of much of his early work. In conflict with this image, he was also a prolific writer of poetry, a keen actor and a loving and devoted son. In the lead up to his death, a change in tone among some of his songs would suggest that he was in the process of becoming a more mature individual, no longer hypnotized by the apparent wealth and glamor of celebrity but eager to make a change within the black community. Gunned down in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, Shakur died at the age of 24. After the being wounded, he survived in hospital for nearly a week, suffering several complications which may have been exacerbated by former injuries also sustained from being shot (Scott, 2009, pp. 204–205). This earlier attack had resulted in sustaining five close range bullet wounds, including one to his head (Scott, 2009, p. 92). In many accounts, it was this episode which lead to the rivalry between Shakur and his former friend and fellow rapper, Christopher Wallace (also known as the Notorious B.I.G or Biggie Smalls). Wallace would meet a similar fate just six months after the death of his friend. The unsolved murders

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of both men have played a prominent role in their respective death narratives. During Shakur’s treatment for the ultimately fatal 1996 shooting, he underwent a series of operations to save his life, but ultimately these were unsuccessful, and he succumbed to internal injuries on 13 September. In the wake of his death, the removal of his body from the hospital was conducted under intense secrecy, with the intent of avoiding the press and fans who had kept vigil outside of the hospital in which he was being kept. As a result, there are no photographic records which show his body after death. A single photo of Shakur, taken after the completion of his autopsy, exists. In the image, one witnesses Shakur’s body before the autopsy wounds have been closed. His chest is visibly open, and one can see directly into the chest cavity, which appears slightly sunken in. Heavily tattooed, the body is clearly recognizable as belonging to Shakur, yet in spite of this certainty, rumors that Shakur is alive persist. He frequently appears on social media, in grainy images which purport to furnish proof of his continued life. So too, his likeness has been resurrected in holograph form, for the entertainment of fans new and old. Recent films and a Netflix mini-series which focused on the friendship and rivalry between Shakur and Wallace have seen a renewed interest in the life and work of both men, though Wallace does not tend to be the subject of resurrection narratives. Like many celebrities before him, Shakur’s posthumous fame is far from abating.

5.7. THE IMAGE AS KEEPSAKE The dead continue to act, as long as they remain part of the narratives of the living. Photography and its accessibility have led to a drastic way in how the concept of the celebrity is

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defined in the public sphere (Levitt, 2010, p. 62). While it is not the only means through which we perpetuate the figure of the celebrity persona, it plays a prominent role in how that figure is preserved in the public mind. In some cases, the celebrity dead retain their status long after death (Howarth, 2007, p. 198). Although their bodies may be absent, the specter of their human form remains enmeshed within the fabric of historical and popular culture, giving them an amplified sense of importance as figures of renown. While I disagree with her assessment of Elvis’s corpse and the fan response to it, Davis discussion of “technological taxidermy” is an important one when we look at how death images are employed in the development of the posthumous celebrity image.2 Similarly, how we engage with these images is essential to the development of our understanding around how and why we continue to be drawn to death images which involve celebrities. Foltyn (2016, p. 246) has argued that the dead belong to the living, that it is we who claim them with compulsion. It is not the flesh and blood of the dead body that has value but instead the concept of the celebrity makes the spectacle of the body significant. Popular culture has imbued the living person with importance and, as they exit stage left from the living world, the public become eager for one final opportunity to attach themselves to that significance – entwining it with their own life story. The significance of the body, like the confirmation of the death itself, can manifest into the parasocial dynamic of the fan/celebrity relationship in a range of different ways. On example of this is the use of souvenirs. Whether or not the death image will count as a souvenir relates largely to how it is obtained. In the case of newspaper articles, we might look to fans keeping copies of newspapers which announce the death of the celebrity and feature the image of the deceased. Later editions which cover the funeral

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of the celebrity can also be included here. In this instance, although the fan has not been responsible for capturing the image, the newspaper is a tangible item which can be kept alongside other memorabilia. Another example of the souvenir, one which evokes the body image, is the tattoo of the zombified celebrity. The zombie design can be adapted to incorporate the visage of any celebrity figure. For the wearer, the individuality of the design is an opportunity to demonstrate their unique parasocial bond with the deceased figure. These designs can also reference the pop-culture narrative of consumption, as it relates to specific iconic figures. Elvis is a popular example of this. When viewed in this context, what this narrative reveals that celebrity consumption is no longer limited to the living celebrity, but is increasingly embracing deceased figures.

5.8. CELEBRITY GRAVE SITES When a photograph of the dead celebrity body or death site is unachievable, images of burial sites can provide an alternative means for fans to enact a final demonstration of ownership over the celebrity body. Unlike funerals in everyday life, at which the taking of selfies can be a disruptive and contemptuous issue (Kohn et al. 2018, p. 237), at the celebrity death site (or even at the celebrity funeral), they command a form of cultural currency. Being in proximity to the deceased and photographing that experience (even when it does not include the actual bodily remains but only the suggestion of them) brings a sense of credibility to the fan experience. Exploring death and memorial rituals through encounters with celebrity death sites allows for individuals to explore their feelings about death in a safe space. The imagined relationship which they have shared or do share with

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the deceased celebrity imitates an intimacy that provides this safety. Where Radford and Bloch (2015, p. 118) have identified that specific objects or items can assist with the construction of the celebrity identity in a way that better reflects the memory which the fan would like to have of the celebrity figure, a similarly powerful association is linked with visiting the celebrity grave site. Often, celebrity figures can be difficult for fans to access in life. Outside of paid photo opportunities and the rare chance encounter, it would be unlikely that a fan would ever meet their celebrity idol. In death however, these boundaries are relaxed. So then, attending the burial site of a specific celebrity allows fans to create bonds in which they can speak directly to the celebrity figure. While the relationship continues to function as a form of para-social interaction, the proximity of fan to celebrity adds a level of depth and realness which is lacking from other variations. Although the body itself is not visible in images from these encounters, it is impossible to dismiss the fact that it is present. The burial site becomes the de-facto body for the fan, who visits it as a means of interacting with the deceased. By photographing themselves at the site, or by leaving mementos, they establish a real-world connection. The photographed grave will then become a fan item, something which is indicative of devotion to the deceased figure. While we might look at graveside photographs as something different to the photograph of the deceased body, these images still suggest a sense of entitlement and ownership over the dead. Jim Morrison’s grave, located in the Parisian Cemetery Pere Lachaise, is an interesting example of this phenomenon. Even forty years after his death, Morrison continue to command a devoted following, with a selfie by his grave acting as the ultimate fan accessory. Fan traffic at the grave has had a negative impact on both Morrison’s resting place and the

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surrounding grave areas, with evidence of desecration and graffiti having a detrimental influence on the way that tourists to the site are viewed by locals and cemetery staff alike. The grave site originally featured a bronze bust of the musician, placed atop a marble headstone. The bust was a particular focus for fans and, after been destroyed and replaced on several occasions, was finally removed. In the years since the bust has been replaced with makeshift, framed photographs of the singer is at the peak of his career. This feature is the focal point of the larger shrine. Morrison is not the only celebrity whose grave attracts a large volume of fans. Elvis Presley’s burial site at Graceland is another, and one which, in its management as a tourist attraction, provides an interesting comparison to Morrison’s public burial site. Much like Morrison’s grave, the graves of Elvis and his family are similarly decorated with devotional offerings left by fans, although these are distinctly more decadent than the empty alcohol bottles and chewing gum deposited with Morrison. As it is housed on the Presley estate, the Elvis grave is unique in that it functions as both a site of death but also a targeted tourist attraction. Here, fans are not only able to visit the earthly remains of the start (thus, enacting a lived encounter with his corpse, despite it being unseen), but become participants in a carefully curated narrative of his life. Visitors to Pere Lachaise Cemetery are free to roam the vast and sprawling grounds as they make their way to Morrison’s resting place. Admission to the site is free, and as one of the oldest cemeteries in Paris, there are ample opportunities to sit and rest, and no shortage of grave and funerary art to ponder during the pilgrimage to Morrison, who is also not the only celebrity to be interred there. In contrast, Elvis’ grave is designed to feature at the end of the Graceland mansion tour, highlighting the absent body as the apex of the visit. In order

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to gain access, an admission price must be paid, and visitors are limited in the both the amount of time they can spend at the venue and in what they can explore independently on the estate. The grave itself is located at the rear of the property, in an area known at the Meditation Garden, and beside an inground swimming pool. Despite the lavishly decorated and immaculately curated grounds, this setting lacks much of the tranquility that can be found in the grounds of the public cemetery setting. Guarded by security and under the constant watch of CCTV cameras and Graceland staff, the experience of visiting the grave is highly mediated in comparison to the experience of seeing Morrison’s burial site. Still, fans flock to visit the shrine of Elvis and, much like Morrison’s grave, pose for selfies in front of the grave as well as taking pictures of it. Although there is a clearly defined narrative constructed around the burial site of Elvis, which is interwoven with the larger site of his home and which expunges any negative history about his life, in both cases the grave site itself is clearly a substitute for the absent human figure. In contrast to the previous examples, the recent deaths of Aretha Franklin and James Brown have included the use of the public viewing, with the body lying in state at several locations across the United States. In the case of Franklin, this “tour” even involved several changes of costume, while for Brown the presentation of his body recalled his upbeat and high-energy performance persona. These events allowed fans to come and mourn the figures, giving them a sense of closure in a relationship which (in most cases) has only ever been fictitious and one-sided. Press coverage of these events was also invaluable to establishing acceptance of the death itself and, because open access was granted to reporters and journalists alike, the images of both figures are composed in a way that is respectful and free of the carnival atmosphere of many celebrity death scenes.

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5.9. CONCLUSION Celebrity bodies are sites of contestation, over which fans and the pubic media jostle for ownership. In death, they become the framework for discussions about the perils of stardom, the price of fame or for moral judgments to be made about an array of other societal ills. The tradeoff for being famous, it seems, is the surrender of anonymity and the acceptance of expectation. In the public mind, the celebrity is an item of property and the narrative of the celebrity life (its trials and its tribulations) is something which fans and the public feel a sense of ownership over. As a result, the death image is often divorced from emotion even though it depicts someone that is, if not emotionally, at least visually familiar. This is interesting when we consider that many fans are involved in rich para-social relationships with the celebrities whom they follow. In this chapter, I have considered the way that the cause of death will impact public perception of the deceased figure, how the death image is received by the public and how the narrative of death is narrated in accordance with this. In examples where a death is violent, the body becomes a site on which fans are able to cast judgment, the death narrative becomes interwoven with a larger cultural narrative about the danger and excess of the celebrity lifestyle. As I have discussed, it is often the taboo circumstances or gruesome deaths fans want to see photographed and that in lieu of being able to view the corpse at the site of death, autopsy or funeral images are equally objects of fascination. Depending on the circumstances around the death, autopsy images can also become valuable pieces of “evidence” in the construction of narratives of fake death. In cases where the body is inaccessible to fans, the ­celebrity grave can be employed as a surrogate body. In instances where

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the grave is open to public traffic, it is photographed in the same way as celebrity would be photographed while living. Fans leave offerings before posing beside the headstone, their presence near the hidden body enough to both feed their parasocial bonds with the dead, as well as to shape their ideas about death and dying in the public eye.

NOTES 1.  Tupac believed this mantra so blindly that he had “Thug Life” tattooed across his stomach. This would become one of the trademark characteristics of his image. 2.  Davis argues that Elvis looked esthetically pleasing in the photographs which were taken in the music room of Graceland, where the singer lay in state after his death in 1977. This is contrary to several other reports, which discuss the fact that the corpse was so bloated and unkempt that it is seen as one of the primary motivations behind the belief that Elvis faked his own death.

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CHAPTER 6 SCIENCE

Image 32. Crime scene markers Source: Shutterstock.

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Photographs represent a half-language, in which humans interpret an image not only upon what they see within the frame but based upon their concepts of their experience of life outside of it (Berger, 2013). While (at one time) Susan Sontag (2008, p. 48) was decidedly less open to the idea of photography having the ability to act as a communicative tool, it is difficult to dismiss the influence it yields regarding human emotion. Similarly, Barthes (2000) may have shared a difficult relationship with the messages that photography conveyed to him about its subjects (p. 115) but he could not deny that the signs existed, even if they were sometimes out of context. Emotional responses, while not reliant upon words, are invariably influenced by internal narrative, a dialogue of memory which is triggered when we engage with a visually stimulating image. While the previous chapters of this book have been concerned specifically with the relationship between emotional response and the narrative of memory, this chapter takes an alternative view by focusing on the forensic death image. Although the content of this genre is undoubtedly as confrontational as many of the others previously discussed, in its composition the aim of the forensic image is the avoidance of emotion (Yoward, 2012, pp. 225–226). The reason for this being that it serves the specific purpose of factual documentation and, in doing so, the image must engage with death impartially. In most instances, one does not want to recall the corpse as it appears in a forensic image, as all too often the purpose of these photographs is to catalog the scene of a crime, or a violent death. In this instance, the camera remembers the victim as they were at the time and place of death so that these facts can be recalled, not for memorializing, but in the pursuit of justice (Huppauf, 1997, p. 40). Forensic photography has become an integral part of crime scene investigation and criminal prosecution in the modern age. Although forensic imagery finds its beginning in

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Belgium around 1850 (Gouse, Karman, Girish, & Murgod, 2018, p. 2), the use of photographic evidence in all aspects of forensics has exploded since that time to include that which is far beyond what its originators would probably have dreamt of. As the use of images in all aspects of criminology is so far reaching ,to analyze each in detail and with due respect to their importance in relation to the history of death photography is well outside the scope of this volume. As such, this chapter begins with a framework of some of the primary ways that forensic photography is used in the cataloging, investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses. To keep the chapter accessible to a wider readership, these examples will be limited to texts and cases which have attracted a large and long-term audience. While the focus will be on photographs of victims, these will be linked to the relationship between the body and the crime scene. The medium through which most of these examples will be discussed is television and film, both of which share a heritage with the photographic image. Forensic photography occupies a strange space within the wider field of death imagery. Compared to examples which have been used in previous chapters, the relatively recent development of this genre of death image means that it is viewed differently by modern audiences. Where other examples have been seen as historic, this is seen as a contemporary means of death narrative formation, one which owes its presence and reception largely to the field of forensic science. As scientific methods for processing crime scenes and testing DNA mature, the forensic image gains credibility as a visual aide within the court room and medical setting. For this reason, it is essential to consider it here, as one of the most recent evolutions in the larger history of death centered photography. Specific case studies drawing on the above mentioned forms of media will be used, a decision which has been made with the purpose of prompting readers to engage with

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f­amiliar texts in a new way and one that might renew both their interest and interpretation of how death and the body are portrayed through the use of images. I have chosen fictionalized or dramatized examples of the forensic image because the staging of prop bodies and doctored crime scene photographs, is a safe space in which viewers can contemplate their own mortality within the landscape of this increasingly violent world (Penfold-Mounce, 2016, p. 32). In doing so, the death image serves individual curiosity on three fronts: (1) in seeing violent crimes solved using forensic images, audiences feel comforted that if they should die in the same way medical science will offer the option for their death to be avenged; (2) forensic photographs appeal to the enduring morbid fascination which all humans have with death and its impact on the body, particularly in early composition, and; (3) forensic photographs allow us to safely contemplate death from the viewpoint of someone who has taken life. While the last is a slightly morbid way to approach our response to the death image, the enduring popularity of documentaries which focus on the motivations of killers and serial killers, along with the endless stream of first person point of view horror films and video games are all suggestive of the fact that, on some level, many of us wonder what it would feel like to control the life or death of another person. In a sense, this harkens back to the appeal of the lynching photograph, which for many collectors was a symbol of their perceived power and authority over the body but also over death itself. To bring these concepts together, the chapter closes with an in-depth assessment of the X-Files episode “Irresistible,” (02:13) which has been selected specifically for the way it

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draws together the forensic image and the body in its portrayal of forensic investigation. This example has also been chosen because the series remains one that is recognizable to a wide range of people of both varying ages and geographies, whilest also being one of the earliest examples of a television drama involving the corpse and graphic photographs of it into its narrative. As a final point, although there is a vast array of scholarship, and indeed an extensive use for forensic photography that is concentrated on living victims, my focus in this chapter is on that which is used in the post-mortem setting.

6.1. FORENSICS IN TELEVISION AND ONLINE Much of what the general public believe they know about forensic photography has been gleaned through their engagement with film and television. At no point in human ­history has there been such an interest in violent crime and the criminals who perpetrate it. Since the beginning of the decade and perhaps in response to the horrors of witnessing 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks in real time, audiences have become fixated on procedural crime dramas and, more recently, ­documentary series which profile the life and crimes of the serial killer. As Penfold-Mounce highlights (2016, p. 25), the introduction of television programs such as America’s Most Wanted in the 1980s played an integral role in the introduction of the cadaver into the living room. Viewing the dead body from the comfort of home encouraged the voyeurism of the viewing public, opening up new avenues through which they might consider their own mortality and discuss death (particularly gruesome, violent and bloody death) without the fear of being stigmatized as morbid or mentally unstable. The format of these types of television show constructed a basic

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narrative, for which, because the crimes were unsolved, the image of the dead body was the conclusion. At the beginning of the century, formulaic “true-crime” series, such as Forensic Files (1996–2011) and Forensic Factor (2003–) began to appear on television. Dealing with a wide array of crimes, the focus of each was not on the police officers who were responsible for investigating the criminals and making an arrest, so much as it was on the scientific work which linked suspects to the crime. It was the laboratory, not the interrogation room, in which crimes were solved and often the body itself was the main source of evidence. The popularity of these series would go on to influence fictional dramas including CSI (2000–2015), NCIS (2003–) and their various spinoffs, and, to some degree drama focused narratives such as, The X Files (1993–2018) and Bones (2005–2017). In all these examples, forensic science is heavily supported throughout the narrative using still photography. The reproductions of crime scene photographs are quite often incredibly realistic and are sometimes used in tandem with a corpse as the protagonists within the story, explaining how death has taken place. They also encourage viewers to search for clues which will identify the perpetrator of the crime, when one is present, or determine a different outcome, if death has been caused by accident or misadventure. In other instances, crime scene photographs are used in both the lab and court room setting. While they may not be the primary focus of the action within the narrative, their presence commands the attention of the viewer, becoming a visual aide through which, they can understand and apply much of the scientific and medical terminology relevant to the case. The spectator also feels connected to the event on the screen (Young, 2010, p. 87), allowing a first person perspective in which death and its resolution are focal points. Outside of television, the internet is another source for engaging with forensic crime and many accounts exist of cold

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cases being solved based on the engagement of arm-chair detectives with crime scene images. One of the most recent and well-publicized examples being the Golden State Killer. The involvement of online communities in relation to the case was detailed in Michelle McNamara’s posthumous book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2017), which also included many images of crime scenes, victims, law enforcement officers and suspects. In this and other examples, the image is engaged with not in relation to a specific emotion for the deceased, but with the express purpose of solving the crime.

6.2. FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY AS A MEANS OF UNDERSTANDING DEATH Forensic photographs, unlike other examples of death photography, are designed to capture the narrative of death as it pertains to the body. This is the cause of death in its entirety, but not the circumstance which leads to it. In doing so, they substitute emotion for fact and prompt audiences to approach the death scene as the conclusion of a story which is yet to be told. Examination of these photographs encourages the viewer to work backwards, away from death. In assessing the final scene, they must decipher who or what has caused it and why. Only in doing so can they obtain a clear picture of the narrative. While the body is a key part in this process, it is merely one of many considerations which the forensic photographer must account for. Although some graphic images may evoke a sense of anger and sadness, again, this is relative to the injustice which the victim has faced in being the focal point of a crime, rather than being related to the fact that they have died and often have little connection with who the individual had been in life.. The upshot of this engagement is that audiences of the forensic photograph develop

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a more robust sense of what takes place after death, along with the effects which certain kinds of injury and exposure to the elements will have upon the corpse. In demystifying the death and decomposition process in this way, viewers of the death image can engage with the concept of their own mortality more completely. In these exchanges there is no consideration of how we will be remembered by the living after we have died, only the inquiry into what will become of the corpse we leave behind. When viewed in relation to many of the inherent anxieties people feel about decomposition, these avenues can be beneficial in allaying a range of fears while also allowing more informed decisions to be made about body disposal.

6.3. FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY AS A TOOL FOR SOLVING CRIME In some exchanges, engagement with the forensic image can assist in demystifying death by depicting it in a clinical light. In others, it provides a sense of security about the ability for science to highlight wrongful death. The increasing influence and popularity of the forensic crime drama renders death and the dead body as a problem to be solved (Gibson, 2007, p. 418). Popular culture has latched onto the idea of forensic science and reproduced it for mass consumption. In most cases, this has included the normalizing of scientific methods and the simplification of complex laboratory processes ­(Penfold-Mounce, 2016, p. 20). The result of this engagement is a false sense of security among the public, as viewers seem to have embraced the notion that death can easily be explained away in the forensics laboratory and if necessary, wrongful death can be avenged with the assistance of science (Crossland, 2018, p. 622).

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Although one does not like to imagine meeting their end at the hands of a murderer, the sad truth of the matter is that murder is not uncommon in contemporary society. For women, particularly in domestic violence scenarios, murder remains one of the most common causes of premature death. In such circumstances, forensic images become important to a sense of futurity. To imagine that our own forensic photographs might one day assist in writing the final moments of our lives does provide a sad type of hope. Subconsciously this may account for our readiness to engage with them through the safety of entertainment television. Perhaps because we see the potential for solving crime in the forensic image, there is a perception that death does not need to render one voiceless. If we were to put ourselves into the place of any victim, there is little doubt as to the importance of having forensic death images taken and cataloged. In accepting that the image outlasts the corpse and thus can speak on its behalf, we imbue these images with the agency of the dead. There is a rationalization that takes place each time we look upon the forensic image: which is that if it represented the only opportunity in which we might seek recourse for our own wrongful death not only would we allow these images to be taken of ourselves, but would hope for the engagement of a future audience, one that would also be willing to investigate the final chapter of our lives. In making this justification, we also permit ourselves to look at the images of other, to divorce from the emotion of their death in favor of adopting a scientific lens. There is an inherent risk that accompanies the marriage of death and science within the image. A final point that must be raised in relation to any image is in what way photography can and cannot give meaning to facts (Berger, 2013, p. 71). Although it is important for audiences to engage with forensic images, the perplexity of information which they

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can convey should not be overstated. This is the drawback of looking at death within the clinical context. The danger in divorcing emotion and death, in putting too much faith in the uncontextualized image, has been detailed in the recent Netflix series Exhibit A (2019) which delves into the specifics of how forensic evidence is used and misused. In detailing the ease with which images (along with a range of other forensic examples) can be misinterpreted, what the series highlights is that the forensic photograph is only part of the puzzle piece. While it might be used to assist viewers in riddling out the means of death, it also risks creating the false idea that we are somehow more familiar with death as it pertains to the clinical sense of dying. Without the benefit of a medical background or extensive exposure to death and the death industry, this is rarely the case. For American audiences, these examples also represent a skewed vision of how crimes are solved within the American justice system. For international audiences too, they can be problematic in their depictions, in that they may make local laws and law enforcement officials seem inferior to their American counterparts. It is not always possible for real life crimes to receive the devoted attention, which is detailed in televised drama, nor is it always possible to source enough evidence to paint a cohesive picture of the crime that has taken place. Although we have come to look to science as a panacea for the relationship between crime and death, it cannot always deliver.

6.4. WOUND CULTURE ON FILM: THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE The term wound culture implies that modern audiences have become obsessed not just with the figure of the dead body,

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but with the idea of seeing within it. The 2016 Netflix film The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a primary example of how wound culture continues to occupy the contemporary mindset. Set in a funeral home, the film is shot in a documentary style and chronicles an investigative autopsy, conducted by a father and son, who receive the body of a mysterious young woman that they are to prepare for burial. The female body is exposed on the dissection table for most of the film, with the camera being concerned not with her nakedness, but with an investigation of the internal. The cause of death, in not being apparent, becomes the focal point of interest as both male protagonists attempt to establish both the identity of the corpse and the cause of her death. As the film progresses and their investigations advances, the flesh of the woman is opened and peeled away, ultimately revealing who she is and how she has come to die. Not only does the delivery of the film play heavily into the patriarchal idea of the female body being an object of looking for the man (recalling much of Berger’s debate on the female form in artworks)1 but invokes historical ideas about the female as a witch. These ideas are thinly veiled in the forensic setting of the narrative. The ultimate function of the corpse within the narrative is to act as a form of currency in communion with the dead. That the corpse “speaks” within the film, actually revealing itself to be capable of murder and destruction, provides an interesting alternative to the way that the body is commonly depicted via this media. While clues about the origin of Jane Doe are present within her skin and bodily cavities, photography also plays a prominent role in the narrative. In the film, as in real life, the intention of the forensic photograph is explicitly to depersonalize the victim. The images must speak for themselves, without evoking excessive emotion. Backgrounds are free of detail and wounds are cleaned, with all excess blood removed from the body, so that the

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image is clear (Ryan, 2008, p. 266). This adds to the clinical feel of the forensic image. How audiences react to viewing the dead body will depend on whether they believe that it is a living corpse (an actor playing the role of the dead body) or the genuine article (Penfold-Mounce, 2016, p. 25). In the true-crime documentary, this is a harder concept to navigate. In this respect, what makes The Autopsy of Jane Doe unlike many representations is that image and body come together not only in a narrative of death, but one in which rebirth becomes a possibility. In this instance the voyeur, in courting death too closely, becomes the victim of its grasp; while the body, revived, becomes an agent in the continuance in death’s inevitable cycle. Fictional accounts of death and murder may have enjoyed a long engagement with audiences, but in more recent decades it is the serial killer who has best come to represent the public fascination with wound culture, specifically because of the emotional distance which many have from their crimes. Serial killers, their victims and their motivations are the new spectacle for audiences who, hundreds of years ago, would have gathered in fascination and glee around the hangman’s noose, or the platforms of public dissection. In this sense, the serial killer appeals to an enduring fascination which the viewing public has with death and the body (PenfoldMounce, 2010, p. 254).

6.5. TRUE CRIME AND THE SERIAL KILLER: NETFLIX AND THE TED BUNDY TAPES Forensic science, as it appears in popular culture, often harnesses the idea that the corpse can speak; that flesh and bone will always have a story to tell (Crossland, 2018, p. 622). The sight of a crime scene, the glimpse of a dead body, but

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more prominently, the motivation for murder are becoming increasingly popular in contemporary culture. Even though such acts disgust us, we are drawn to them (Young, 2010, p. 83). Perhaps this is because they service our long-held fascination with mortality, while allowing us to contemplate what it means to die. One controversial aspect of forensic science, which has been exacerbated by the use of photography is the field of forensic odontology. This practice is focused on the cataloging of bite marks, usually found on the body of a victim. Images are measured, photographed and preserved for the purpose of trying to match a suspect’s dental work to the patterns which their bite mark has left (Ryan, 2008, p. 267, 270). One of the most high-profile cases in which forensic odontology was used was that of serial killer Ted Bundy. I have chosen to discuss Bundy specifically because he is also the subject of a range of Netflix films and true-crime documentary series which rely on his murders and subsequent court cases in their stylized depiction of his crimes. In the following section, I will discuss first how forensic odontology was used during the Bundy trial, before looking at how these images have been recreated in the documentary and dramatic portrayals of his court case. Forensic odontology is focused on capturing a bite marks which have been left upon the skin, to show not only bite circumference, but peculiarities in the bite pattern and teeth. At one point, it was generally believed that like a fingerprint, a bite pattern was unique and that in instances where one could be captured through the clarity of film, it could serve as proof of guilt (Rule, 2019, p. 376). During composition these types of photographs must be taken at multiple angles and, like other forms of forensic images, must be shot closeup and in relation to the rest of the body (Gouse et al., 2018, p. 4). This is to provide context around where on the body

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the bite is located as well as giving some insight into how it was inflicted. Although the method has lost traction in more recent times, largely due to the fact that images can easily be misinterpreted and bite marks are not as singular as was once believed, forensic odontology has played a vital role in highprofile criminal trials of the past. One example is the case of Ted Bundy, which used the technique to secure a conviction over the 1978 murders of Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. Interest in Bundy and his crimes has been renewed with the release of the Netflix series The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019). Unlike other semi-autobiographical accounts, which have drawn contempt for their glamorization of Bundy as the handsome and misunderstood loner, The Ted Bundy Tapes draws heavily on authentic crime scenes, including detailed photographs of deceased victims and partial remains, as well as on actual footage of Bundy during his trial. These source materials act as supporting characters of the narrative, although in viewing them in the clinical context it is easy to remove the emotion from such images. In the Bundy case, the specific angle of the teeth played a major role in securing a conviction. One of Bundy’s final victims, Lisa Levy, suffered multiple, deep bite marks, which were photographed and compared to a later rendering of Bundy’s jaw. Several experts testified that the casting and the bite patterns (which were enlarged for the benefit of the court audience, and now, the viewer) were a perfect match (Rule, 2019, pp. 382–386). For viewers that come to a knowledge of Bundy and his crimes through watching The Ted Bundy Tapes, there is a detailed consideration of this part of the trial. Graphic images of the bite marks, as they appeared on the body of the victim, are shown, along with the mold of Bundy’s teeth. As such, in the viewers mind, the image reconfirms the belief that forensic images can act both as evidence or guilt and as a stand in for the deceased body. This in turn,

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simplifies what it in fact a complex relationship between image and fact. The airing of the documentary, along with the release of the Zac Efron film (Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, 2019) has seen a renewed interest in Bundy, who has become something of a cult figure and in some cases sex symbol (Fallon, 2019). These responses have caused an outcry from certain members of the public, specifically those who were related to, or knew, Bundy’s victims. The consensus among these people is that the victims have been overshadowed. This further highlights a disconnect in emotions between audience members (the viewers of the image) and the subjects of the image (Bundy’s victims), which has been precipitated by the composition of the image. Part of this reason may lie in the fact that forensic images of the victims are rarely selected over portraits of them when they were alive. The bite mark photographs which are shown throughout the trial only highlight the area in question and are never shown in the context of the whole body. As such, the corpse is not so easily associated with a once living person. In the interest of a conducting a fair trial, very little is said about the personality of either of the victims. While both women are named and cursory details such as their age are provided, the audience gains no sense of who they were in life and thus, it becomes difficult to view them outside of the clinical context. They become evidence of Bundy’s criminality rather than people who, once alive, now exist only in the memories of their loved ones. This is an interesting example of the negative influence which forensic photography can have on an audience. In examining the victim through the cold light of forensics, it becomes difficult to associate with the death of that person. In contrast, the figure of the killer is always shown in full and developed as a three-dimensional person. These portrayals can appear to be sympathetic, the result of which is that

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the victim becomes a faceless entity, lacking a complete body, even in the death image. Perhaps it is an overexposure to death and the death image which has made modern audiences somewhat numb to the atrocity of serial murder. Culturally, we have also become desensitized to violent death while at the same time being avoidant of discussing death from natural causes. As television becomes more determined to push the boundaries of social acceptability, in both its depiction of death and sympathetic view of killers, it is an unavoidable consequence that images of death, no matter how violent, will cease to have the same emotional impact they once did.

6.6. THE X FILES: “IRRESISTIBLE” Dramatic television shows such as The X Files, adopted a ­similar albeit it fictional format to their true-crime counterparts. In the interest of time and viewer attention however, crime scene processing, laboratory testing and the time required for autopsy are all accelerated. The X Files is unique among other long-running series in that it moves comfortable between its primary narrative of alien invasion and a stream of standalone episodes in which unexplained and unsolved cases act as the central plot points. Inevitably during the course of these episodes, a crime would be committed, and quite often a death would take place, giving Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) a reason to investigate the scenario. As the medical professional of the duo, it was Dr Scully who would act as the interpreter of medical jargon, explaining complex forensic terms to viewers through a narration of her autopsy findings or her computer journal. Quite often the autopsy itself would be featured. In early seasons of the series, the setting of the autopsy not only provided the dramatic tension but was the opportunity for

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the audiences to engage in graphic detail with the procedure itself. Mulder’s own narration of events was a counterpoint to Scully’s scientific one, often looking to more supernatural elements as the cause of death. It was this balance between death as a scientific sequence of events and death as a mysterious hap stance that made the series so popular over the nine seasons of its initial run (1993–2001). Although Scully conducts a variety of autopsies throughout the series, many with Mulder in attendance, the most fascinating example of the way in which the death image is used as a conduit between the living and dead, and as an accompaniment to the dead body is the episode “Irresistible” (2:13), in which Mulder and Scully are investigating a spate of grave robberies. The episode opens at the funeral service for a young girl, whose body is displayed in an open casket. This is the first encounter between audience and corpse. In the following scene, a mortuary attendant returns to the funeral home late in the evening, where he interrupts Donnie Pfaster (Nick Chinlund) interfering with the life-like corpse seen in the opening shot. The shock of this view is lessened by the fact that the actress is visibly breathing within the casket, thus negating the impact of the scene. So too, the subconscious knowledge that a living body has replaced a genuine corpse provides a safe space for audiences to engage with what will develop into a very dark narrative. Donnie is dismissed from the funeral home for removing the hair of the girl, but it is later revealed that he turns to grave desecration in order to fulfill his necrophiliac tendencies. In addition to hair, he is transfixed with painted fingernails and removes the fingers of several corpses before the involvement of the FBI (and subsequently Mulder and Scully) in the case. As they are investigating the scenes of these prior crimes, Scully is confronted with a manila folder full of images of the corpses which Donnie has come into contact with. In various

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stages of decay, these have been removed from their coffins and returned to the mortuary or forensic setting for further investigation and processing. As she sifts through the images, it is her own face she begins to see, highlighting not only Scully’s own feelings of fear and uncertainty about her mortality, but those of the audience. These same feelings are later articulated when Scully meets with a psychiatrist to discuss her response to the case. As the episode progresses, Donnie is unable to access corpses from either the funeral home or the cemetery, so turns to live women to fulfill his needs. Unlike previous examples, these interactions show the body in life and in death, bringing the audience much closer to the relationship between living and dying. Upon finding the mutilated body of a prostitute, Scully is again confronted with images, this time of a newly deceased body, and again envisions herself as a corpse. After a failed second encounter with a potential victim, Donnie observes both FBI Agents while they are interviewing another suspect in a cell across from where he is being held. Upon seeing Scully’s red hair, Donnie becomes fixated. The audience, for whom Scully is now a conduit, experience her subsequent stalking and horror as she is kidnapped. Although she escapes and is rescued by Mulder and a barrage of local detectives before Donnie murders her, what makes this episode unique is the way in which the figure of death moves between settings. Beginning in the relatively safe space of the funeral home (where the corpse of the newly deceased girl has its hair removed), it transitions into the graveyard (where it appears in the defiled graves of Donnie’s long-deceased and decomposing victims), and back into the forensic setting (where Scully conducts an autopsy on the first living woman that Donnie murders). All the while using the body as a central point of unease. In this depiction, audiences are confronted with the relatively rare experience of participating in

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the journey of corpse decomposition, an experience which is enhanced through the intersplicing of the physical body with images of previous victims. As Scully, the confident forensic specialist begins to imagine herself as a dead person, the audience is shifted again out of their sense of certainty, where they are reminded that ultimately, we will all die and that the guise of the medical doctor and safety of the emotionless forensic laboratory are temporary.

6.7. CONCLUSION This chapter has provided a cursory discussion of the different ways that forensic photography can be read in relation to other images of death. Unlike the previous examples discussed within this collection, forensic photography is the furthest removed from human emotion, specifically because it is so often cast in a clinical setting. As a result, the forensic image allows viewers to adopt a clinical attitude toward death itself, in which they can depersonalize the body of the deceased and disconnect from its associated narratives of mourning. Through an analysis of contemporary examples which incorporate the forensic image, I have suggested that on some level, clinical death images allow the audience to engage with death from the perspective of a murderer. This is particularly true of images which are viewed in conjunction with high profile crimes. In looking at images of murder victims we are simultaneously cast in the role of the deceased and the role of the murderer. While none of us would long to trade places with the murdered, there exists some form of innate fascination which prompts us to consider how and why murderers commit their crimes. This is not new to forensic styles of photography but could also be found in lynching images of previous eras. Unlike these, however, by posing death in the medical setting, we seek

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to validate our fascination with controlling mortality. Science affords us a safe space in which to navigate the clinical aspects of death, while avoiding the inalienable truth that for death to be explored in this fashion, someone must still die.

NOTE 1.  In Ways of Seeing, John Berger puts forth a compelling argument about the lack of agency of the female in all forms of visual art. Specifically, he suggests that unlike their male counterparts, a woman is always an object to be studied, her body is never her own, but exists ever-ready to be consumed by the (usually male) gaze. Chapter 4 drew on this idea in its discussion of lynching photography, by drawing parallels between the objectified female body and the objectified black body as it appears in the lynching image.

CONCLUSION

Image 33. Coffin Source: Shutterstock.

FUTURE LIVING THROUGH DEATH IMAGES The value of the photograph as a memento is exclusive to the fact that it captures something, or someone, that is absent from us. In doing so, it allows what is loved to be held close, to be carried beside us (Berger, 2013, p. 20, 63). Historically the beauty and sadness, the longing and emotion of the ­photograph belonged specifically to this idea of the absent other, yet in the contemporary social landscape photography is so much a part of daily life that it can be easy to lose sight of its value for this purpose. With ever more frequency, we are becoming fixated with the self, who is of course, never absent. Still, even amid this selfie-obsession, we rarely think on the futurity of the photographs which we take with such abandon. Never does it occur to us that the last image on our cell phone camera role might soon become the reminder of the self who has suddenly been made absent through death. 171

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Death occupies a singular space in the human psyche, holding an inherent attraction in its inevitable certainty. Using the death image as a focal point, it is this attraction with which I have engaged in discussion throughout each chapter of this book. My aim has been to draw attention to the multiplicity of ways in which death photography has held (and continues to hold) an almost hypnotic fascination among the living, primarily as a mirror into which we look to see our own death. In focusing on the image and its role in humanity’s “primitive theatre” (Barthes, 2000, p. 32), I have fulfilled this aim. Like death itself, these images dwell on the fringes of appropriateness, becoming almost pornographic (Gorer, 1955, p. 195) in their honest and detailed depictions of the body and its role in the death scenario. This is enhanced by the relationship which death and its imagery shares with concepts such as romance, religion and ownership, as these qualities too, when in abundance, can be perceived as either pornographic or sublime. Within the sphere of death photography, there continues to exist an abundance of images, far outside of the genres discussed in this book. These too should be examined with a critical eye, to discern what they convey about death and the way in which it is communicated through the medium of the image. Similarly, the ways in which social media and image sharing cultures continue to influence the social landscape are imperative to consider in any future discussion on death imagery. As any user of media sharing sites will recognize, tribute photographs are becoming increasingly common features, while selfies taken at funerals and death or atrocity sites continue to be contested in the comment section of personal profiles, as frequently as in academic journals. The personal legacy that will outlast every one of us in the online world is also a developing area of scholarship, one in which questions of agency and ownership dominate discussion.

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Then, there are death images which depict animals, as celebrities, influencers and pets. As the landscape of animal and human relationships shifts in the domestic space and the online world, the way in which we mourn our animal cohabitants is changing in response. Increasingly, they too are becoming, quite unknowingly, bound up with the legacy of the human death image. The photograph is like a ghost, and in it we embed a special significance, a belief that because it appears to be so lifelike that it retains something of the person (or animal) it portrays. John Berger (1980) predicted that photography was a form of “human prophecy” which has yet to be realized (p. 61) and, with the camera having never been more readily accessible than it is in this moment, we may be about to see this prediction come to fruition. For every mobile phone user, the camera shutter is only a swipe or button away. We have become so conditioned to capture things as evidence of our having been there that the still image no longer retains the gravity which it had within the society of prior generations. How the availability and accessibility of snap-shot images will change the way that we remember the dead, or that we are remembered remains to be seen. They are avenues which it is incumbent upon the field of mortality studies to contemplate. It is my hope that in compiling this volume, I have begun what will evolve into a more detailed and far-reaching discussion around how death is captured in the photograph. One small consolation which we might draw from our fascination with images of death and the dead body is that they have no bearing on the afterlives of those whom they depict. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding death, those already departed have no concern of our preoccupations. How we discuss them or use their likenesses to mollify our own fears about the eternal cannot change the inevitability of their absence. As Susan Sontag (2008) reminds us, the dead are always supremely

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uninterested in the living (p. 125). Although we find comfort in looking upon them, they will never return our gaze. We forgive them of this short-coming, simply because it is always only ever our own mortality that we are searching for in their likeness.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Image 34. Camera on Tripod Source: Shutterstock.

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The following is a list of internet sites and publications where death images discussed in this volume can be located. Please keep in mind that some of the content on these websites is incredibly graphic and confrontational.

CHAPTER 1: Thanatos Archive: https://thanatos.net/ A comprehensive collection of death and mourning photographs from the Victorian era. Includes British and American examples.

CHAPTER 2: National Gallery National Australia: https://nga.gov.au/ A collection of Frank Hurley’s war images can be found online through the archives.

CHAPTER 3: Public Domain Review: https://publicdomainreview.org/ Website offers a library of images and account of the séance sessions of Eva C along with some Spiritualism reading material. A brief account of Eva C and her spiritualism practices can also be found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s History of Spiritualism.

CHAPTER 4: Without Sanctuary: https://withoutsanctuary.org/ The official website holds an extensive catalog of lynching images from across America, along with documentary films and other supplemental reading materials.

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There are numerous websites which contain the death images of Frank Embree. OHAFRICA is one example, which also includes a detailed history of Embree and the events surrounding his death: https://ohafrika.com/the-story-offrank-embree-a-black-man-falsely-accused-of-rape-waslynched-in-1899-and-his-gory-photos-used-for-postcards/

CHAPTER 5: A detailed account of John Belushi’s final hours can be found in The Castle on Sunset by Shawn Levy (2019). Weird Picture Archive: https://weirdpicturearchive.com/ Images from the Chris Farley death scene are available here, along with a variety of celebrity autopsy photographs. Autopsy photographs of Tupac Shakur are available online, as well as in Cathy’s Scott’s book (detailed in the reference section). Find a Death website: https://findadeath.com/ Operated by Scott Michaels, who also operates Dearly Departed tours (the official Hollywood death tour) in Los Angeles. The website has an extensive collection of photographs and vignettes about celebrity deaths. CBS News Website has a range of photographs from the Kurt Cobain death site, which were released by the media outlet in 2016: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/ new-kurt-cobain-death-scene-photos/

CHAPTER 6: A detailed source for Ted Bundy and his crimes is Anne Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me (re-released in 2019). Unlike other accounts of either Bundy or his crimes, Rule is unique in that she was a friend of Bundy prior to and during the commission

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of his murders. Her description of the case incorporates her personal response to the crimes before she was aware that Bundy was responsible, whilst detailing their continued interactions after his arrest. In addition to this emotional account, the novel is essential one of non-fiction and incorporates detailed information of many of Bundy’s crimes, along with crime scene images and photographs of his victims.

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INDEX America’s Most Wanted, 155 Autopsy of Jane Doe (The), 160–161 Barthes, Roland, 8–9, 20–21, 64–65, 110, 119, 152 Belushi, John, 15, 132, 134–137 Benjamin, Walter, 8–96 Berger, John, 8–9, 20–21, 61, 65, 111–112, 114, 161, 173 Brown, James, 147 Carte de Viste, 13 Civil War (American), 4, 12–13, 39, 42–43, 45–50, 52, 54, 57–60, 65, 69–70 Cobain, Kurt, 132, 138–140 Conan Doyle, Arthur (Sir), 66, 80 CSI, 156 Death mask, 23

Embalming, 11, 13, 24, 44, 57–60 Farley, Chris, 15, 132, 134–138 Flowers, 30–31, 36 Forensic Files, 156 Franklin, Aretha, 147 Graceland, 146–147, 149n2 James, Jesse, 36 Lincoln, Mary Todd, 68 Lynching, 4, 9, 11, 14, 52, 109–127, 130, 154, 169 Medium, 4–5, 17, 54, 68–69, 73–80, 82, 132, 153, 172 Morrison, Jim, 15, 145–147 Mourning photograph, 11–12, 14, 20–23, 26, 32–33, 35, 39n1, 41–43, 47, 49, 51, 59, 64,

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68–70, 73–74, 116, 133, 137, 169 Mumler, William, 68, 73–75 Netflix, 142, 160, 162–165 NCIS, 156 Presley, Elvis, 15, 146 Prince, 132 Psychic, 74, 76, 80, 110 Séance photographs, 68–69, 72, 75–81 Shakur, Tupac, 15, 133, 138, 138, 141–142 Sontag, Susan, 9, 55–56, 152, 174

Spiritualism, 10, 12–14, 28, 61, 66–67, 69–70, 74–75, 81–82 Ted Bundy, 163 Ted Bundy Tapes (The), 162–165 Vietnam War, 12 Without Sanctuary, 124 World War I, 4, 12–13, 43, 52, 52–55, 70, 121 World War II, 4, 15, 43, 52, 55–57, 120–121 X Files (The), 154, 156, 166–168