Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,
But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.
William Butler Yeats
Keith Carter, Hummingbirds, 1989
(more Keith Carter)
Warning:
This post contains photographs of dead people and/or animals which some viewers may find disturbing
Yamamoto Masao
(more Yamamoto Masao)
Francesca Woodmann
Andrea Modica, Fountain, Colorado, 2000
Sally Mann, Jessie and the Deer, 1985
Roger Ballen
(more Roger Ballen)
Anne Berry Captain
Dieter Appelt, 1959
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Untitled, circa 1960
Sally Mann, Body Farm series, 2000-2001
George Krause, “Saints and Martyrs” Series, 1963-Present
Walter Schels, Series of portraits of people before and on the day they died
Frederick Sommer, The Eatable Thief, 1950
Olivia Parker, Site I (from Lost Objects Portfolio)
Edward Steichen, Wilted Sunflower, ca. 1922
Rusla Safin, Till Death Do Us Apart
Vasco Ascolini
Vasco Ascolini
Christer Strömholm, Polaroid 11, 1977
Brassaï, Graffiti, La naissance du visage, ca. 1935-1950
Patrick Bailly-Maître-Grand
Patrick Bailly-Maître-Grand
Robert Frank, Painkiller
Joel-Peter Witkin
Arthur Tress, Ancient Singer, 1980
John Reekie, Cold Harbor, Virginia. Unburied dead on the battlefield of Gaines' Mill, 1865
Lee Miller, Dead SS Guard in the Canal, Dachau, Germany, 1945
Lee Miller, The suicided Burgermeister’s Daughter, Leipzig, Germany, 1945
Robert Wiles, The peaceful portrait of Evelyn McHale, who leapt to her
death from the Empire State Building on May 1st, 1947.
Fritz Fabert
Francesca Woodmann
Arthur Tress, Mummified Woman, Mexico City, 1964
Bettina Rheims, Orang-outang, Paris, 1985
Bruno Réquillart, Lions, 1977
Série: Gros plans Lieu de prise de vue. Museum d’Histoire Naturelle
I can't help but notice in Jessie and the Deer that the child's smile is echoed by the cut on the deer's neck (it's like an upside down smile).
ReplyDeleteI wonder what took place in the photographers' minds when these photographs were taken? It reminds me of a story my teacher told me about Claude Monet painting his wife on her death bed. This is apparently what he told his friend afterwards:
"I caught myself watching her tragic forehead, almost mechanically observing the sequence of changing colours that death was imposing on her rigid face. Blue, yellow, grey and so on… my reflexes compelled me to take unconscious action in spite of myself."
May be the gap between observing and experiencing is never deeper than when it comes to death and dying.
DeleteTo quote one of the most famous stories about the subject:
There was no deceiving himself: something terrible, new, and more important than anything before in his life, was taking place within him of which he alone was aware.
from: "The Death of Ivan Ilych" by Leo Tolstoy
Stunning images, beautifully curated, thanks.
ReplyDelete