Portfolio Category - LCEA 2013

The “corpse removal” or a body being removed from the scene of a murder or notable death is a standard subject in the news gathering business. The medical examiner’s workers put the deceased into a body bag, strap it to a gurney and wheel it to a waiting truck, (know colloquially as the “meat wagon”) which transports it to the morgue. It’s a strangely intimate final interaction that a corpse has with the medical examiner. This intimacy is betrayed by the presence of cameras and reporters as well as the image’s vast dissemination through television, newspapers and the internet. Die Not, Poor Death is a look at this phenomenon through the filter of athazagoraphobia or the fear of being forgotten. I’ve crudely removed the corpse from the corpse removal and thus from our historical object of reminiscence: the photograph. In doing so, I’m demonstrating photography’s ability to forget.