Death Takes a Holiday Response

Death began appearing in photography through the use of the newspaper. Instead of experiencing death first hand, someone miles away could view the photograph of the event as a substitute for the being there. During a series of suicide leaps, one publisher kept a blank photograph of a monument and would drop in male and female figures when a new suicide was reported. It was interesting to read about what the postmodernists thought about photography and its rapid growth in popularity and the speed of new processes and printing techniques. The PM’s said that the public was accepting the copy over the original, preferring the image to the real thing. As public capitol punishment and torture became more taboo and less accepted, the public became accustomed to seeing documentary illustrations or photographs of these events if they were not able to see it in person. As life expectancy grew, people began to fear death even more as living conditions and medicine progressed. Henry Peach Robinson made a composite photograph in 1858 depicting death as a more peaceful, painless experience. Posthumous photographs of fallen family members became popular in the 19^th century in household parlors. The photography team Southworth and Hawes photographed the dead with a peaceful and natural feel to them, almost as if the deceased were asleep. Religion also had a big part on the public’s fear of death. As society progressed and the enlightenment came about, beliefs about the afterlife became less common and created anxiety about death among the masses. This anxiety created a fascination with death in the media. Newspapers and journals that had stories and illustrations or photos of capitol punishment, murderers and fatal disasters had a large increase in circulation.

This fascination with death is even more extreme today and I believe it will only get worse. In the 90’s, I remember one of my cousins getting an illegal vhs showing deaths and suicides. I also remember in middle school that some of my friends had seen a video circulating over the internet of a man getting his head cut off in real time. I always refused to watch these video’s and still don’t understand how another person could watch a persons life being taken that violently. Recently I went to a high school friends house that I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. We had nothing to do really so he grabbed his laptop and typed in “Violent fights.” 10 videos later he landed on “Extreme Chick Fights” video. I was sort of angry when watching these videos and seeing how many million views they had. I think that in the near future we will be able to watch real death shown on youtube, as long as you verify age of course.