making death beautiful
As a year comes to a close, it is only natural to look back over the past months and reflect upon what has transpired.
Like I mentioned last week in my post about photo contests, in 2008, I shot a lot of sports and a lot of the people that death left behind.
I was at the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park where 5 women were murdered (photo above), I was at Northern Illinois University after a gunman shot to death 5 students and then himself in a lecture hall, I was at countless crime scenes in Chicago as the city vied for the dubious title of murder capital of the United States and most recently I covered the Aurora helicopter crash and the Hudson family killings.
In each of these situations I have made photos that are graphically pleasing and sometimes even beautiful.
I am not sure if this is because I am trying to make pretty pictures as a way to deal with being confronted by death on almost a weekly basis or if the grieving process itself with its flowers and formal clothes is inherently photogenic.
Either way, they are both poignant and necessary images.
Your work makes me think about the lives of those who are grieving.
Thank you for sharing.
maybe it’s beautiful because it’s real.