About Me

I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Utøya massacre survivors: ‘I bear my scars with dignity’ - in pictures Photographer Andrea Gjestvang’s poignant portraits of survivors of the Utøya massacre in Norway in July 2011 have won her the top prize at the Sony World Photography awardsOne Day in History is on show as part of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House until 12 May (somersethouse.org.uk) [The original text said that the Utøya massacre took place in November, rather than July 2011 and has been corrected] (Source: The Guardian)

    Utøya massacre survivors: ‘I bear my scars with dignity’ - in pictures

    Photographer Andrea Gjestvang’s poignant portraits of survivors of the Utøya massacre in Norway in July 2011 have won her the top prize at the Sony World Photography awards

    One Day in History is on show as part of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House until 12 May (somersethouse.org.uk) [The original text said that the Utøya massacre took place in November, rather than July 2011 and has been corrected]

    (Source: The Guardian)

    Photographer Rankin focuses on mortality

    Photographer Rankin is bringing a new exhibition to Liverpool, looking at people with terminal illness and the issue of mortality.

    Rankin’s Alive: In the Face of Death, which takes place at the Walker Art Gallery from 17 May to 15 September, “looks at life in the face of death”.

    The renowned photographer called it “one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever been involved in”.

    The show forms part of Liverpool’s International Photography Festival.

    The exhibition marks a collaboration between Rankin, the Walker Gallery, BBC Two’s The Culture Show and BBC North.

    The launch will be marked by a Culture Show documentary “that will reveal the whole process with exclusive access to Rankin and his subjects”, said Culture Show editor Janet Lee.

    Rankin, 46, remains best known as a celebrity photographer…

    (Source: BBC News)

    The colour of darkness: Vivid pictures of first Nazi concentration camps give chilling insight into the dawn of the Holocaust These horrifying colour pictures show the conditions endured by the first victims of Hitler’s concentration camps. The camps were hastily erected in Germany in February 1933 immediately after Hitler became Chancellor. The images, posted on Vintage Everyday, show the earliest victims of Hitler’s murderous regime and harrowingly chronicle what they were forced to endure. In the weeks after the Nazis came to power, The SA, SS, the police, and local civilian authorities organised numerous detention camps to incarcerate and torture their opponents. Read more.

    The colour of darkness: Vivid pictures of first Nazi concentration camps give chilling insight into the dawn of the Holocaust

    These horrifying colour pictures show the conditions endured by the first victims of Hitler’s concentration camps. The camps were hastily erected in Germany in February 1933 immediately after Hitler became Chancellor.

    The images, posted on Vintage Everyday, show the earliest victims of Hitler’s murderous regime and harrowingly chronicle what they were forced to endure.

    In the weeks after the Nazis came to power, The SA, SS, the police, and local civilian authorities organised numerous detention camps to incarcerate and torture their opponents.

    Read more.

    The Fascinating Last Photographs of Famous People This week marks the 32nd anniversary of Rolling Stone’s famous cover featuring a portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. It was the last professional photo captured of the iconic musician, who was killed hours later outside his apartment in New York City. We’re discounting the chilling image fan Paul Goresh took of Lennon and Chapman that fateful morning. “What is interesting is she said she’d take her top off and I said, ‘Leave everything on’ — not really preconceiving the picture at all,” Leibovitztold the magazine. “Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn’t help but feel that he was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both very excited. John said, ‘You’ve captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it’ll be on the cover.’ I looked him in the eye and we shook on it.” Leibovitz had only planned to photograph Lennon, but the image of the couple turned out to be one of her most famous portraits and would define one of the most talked about relationships in pop culture history. We scouted for other fascinating photographs that perhaps offer some insight into the final days of famous people. Click here for more.

    The Fascinating Last Photographs of Famous People

    This week marks the 32nd anniversary of Rolling Stone’s famous cover featuring a portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. It was the last professional photo captured of the iconic musician, who was killed hours later outside his apartment in New York City. We’re discounting the chilling image fan Paul Goresh took of Lennon and Chapman that fateful morning.

    “What is interesting is she said she’d take her top off and I said, ‘Leave everything on’ — not really preconceiving the picture at all,” Leibovitztold the magazine. “Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn’t help but feel that he was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both very excited. John said, ‘You’ve captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it’ll be on the cover.’ I looked him in the eye and we shook on it.”

    Leibovitz had only planned to photograph Lennon, but the image of the couple turned out to be one of her most famous portraits and would define one of the most talked about relationships in pop culture history. We scouted for other fascinating photographs that perhaps offer some insight into the final days of famous people.

    Click here for more.

    Fallen soldiers: Is it right to take images of bodies? To some, images of dead soldiers are a vital historical resource. To others, they are an insult to fallen heroes. So when should we be allowed to film the bodies of those lost in past conflicts, asks documentary maker John Hayes Fisher. The tightly-laced leather boots emerging from the Flanders mud are the giveaway that the body being carefully unearthed by archaeologists in front of me is that of an Allied soldier, killed in World War I. This is Messines in Belgium and the New Zealand soldier, identified from his metal shoulder tags, almost certainly died while attacking the town early on 7 June 1917. What I don’t anticipate is the arrival of Belgian police who announce that if either my colleague or I photograph or film the body, we will be arrested, our camera equipment impounded and - possibly - the archaeological dig closed down.

    Fallen soldiers: Is it right to take images of bodies?

    To some, images of dead soldiers are a vital historical resource. To others, they are an insult to fallen heroes. So when should we be allowed to film the bodies of those lost in past conflicts, asks documentary maker John Hayes Fisher.

    The tightly-laced leather boots emerging from the Flanders mud are the giveaway that the body being carefully unearthed by archaeologists in front of me is that of an Allied soldier, killed in World War I.

    This is Messines in Belgium and the New Zealand soldier, identified from his metal shoulder tags, almost certainly died while attacking the town early on 7 June 1917.

    What I don’t anticipate is the arrival of Belgian police who announce that if either my colleague or I photograph or film the body, we will be arrested, our camera equipment impounded and - possibly - the archaeological dig closed down.

    arpeggia:

    Angela Strassheim - Evidence

    Evidence is a group of photographs taken at homes where familial homicides have occurred. Long after the struggles have ended in these spaces, despite the cleaning, repainting and subsequent re-habitation of these homes, the “Blue Star” solution activates the physical memory of blood through its contact with the remaining DNA proteins on the walls. The black and white images are long exposures – from ten minutes to one hour – with minimal ambient night light pouring in from the crevices of windows and doors, capturing the physical presence of blood as a lurid glow.

    (via lostinhistory)

    Spooky shots of volunteers wearing nothing but white sheets at the Festival of Skeletons… taken to mark Day of the Dead For a man whose career is taking pictures of naked volunteers, these photos will hardly be shocking. But to the average viewer these shots by Spencer Tunick - taken early morning at the Festival de Calacas (Festival of Skeletons) in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico - will be rather spooky. Mr Tunick, 45, used the eerie landscape of Los Senderos village and 150 volunteers in white sheets for his ‘Spirits’ project, to mark the Day of the Dead - which pays tribute to people who have died. Mr Tunick, who was born in 1967 in Middletown, New York, trained at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan before studying at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been creating astonishing human art installations for the past 20 years, gathering hundreds or thousands of naked volunteers, aiming to create scenes where humans blend with landscape. One memorable previous effort saw him photograph 1,800 naked people arranged in the coloured seats of the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria, which hosted the Euro 2008 football final. Mr Tunick boasts on his website that he has been arrested five times while trying to work outdoors in New York City since 1992, with the last of these coming in 1999 in Times Square, Manhattan. However Mr Tunick was so desperate to continue working on New York’s streets that he filed a lawsuit against the city to protect himself and participants from future arrests - which he won. But his website adds that he has not worked on the streets of New York in a decade, after he was rejected when applying for his first New York City permit after winning his case against the city. Now it seems Mr Tunick has found a soft spot for travelling south to work in San Miguel de Allende. He told the New York Times in June of this year: ‘I head down to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico quite often these days where I have learned to appreciate a good tequila like Casa Dragones.’

    Spooky shots of volunteers wearing nothing but white sheets at the Festival of Skeletons… taken to mark Day of the Dead

    For a man whose career is taking pictures of naked volunteers, these photos will hardly be shocking.

    But to the average viewer these shots by Spencer Tunick - taken early morning at the Festival de Calacas (Festival of Skeletons) in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico - will be rather spooky.

    Mr Tunick, 45, used the eerie landscape of Los Senderos village and 150 volunteers in white sheets for his ‘Spirits’ project, to mark the Day of the Dead - which pays tribute to people who have died.

    Mr Tunick, who was born in 1967 in Middletown, New York, trained at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan before studying at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

    He has been creating astonishing human art installations for the past 20 years, gathering hundreds or thousands of naked volunteers, aiming to create scenes where humans blend with landscape.

    One memorable previous effort saw him photograph 1,800 naked people arranged in the coloured seats of the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria, which hosted the Euro 2008 football final.

    Mr Tunick boasts on his website that he has been arrested five times while trying to work outdoors in New York City since 1992, with the last of these coming in 1999 in Times Square, Manhattan.

    However Mr Tunick was so desperate to continue working on New York’s streets that he filed a lawsuit against the city to protect himself and participants from future arrests - which he won.

    But his website adds that he has not worked on the streets of New York in a decade, after he was rejected when applying for his first New York City permit after winning his case against the city.

    Now it seems Mr Tunick has found a soft spot for travelling south to work in San Miguel de Allende.

    He told the New York Times in June of this year: ‘I head down to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico quite often these days where I have learned to appreciate a good tequila like Casa Dragones.’

    Calendar of BIRMINGHAM GRAVEYARDS is surprise hit  Well, it’s certainly one way of remembering the date. A creepy calendar featuring a morbid tour of Birmingham graveyards has become a surprise bestseller. And with eerie pictures of graves and tombstones constantly reminding the owner of death, it may even prompt people to start ticking off their ‘bucket list’ with haste. Macabre creator Kevin Beresford, 60, has been inundated with orders for the spooky calendar, which offers a 12 month ghostly graveyard tour of Birmingham. Full story here!

    Calendar of BIRMINGHAM GRAVEYARDS is surprise hit 

    Well, it’s certainly one way of remembering the date.

    A creepy calendar featuring a morbid tour of Birmingham graveyards has become a surprise bestseller.

    And with eerie pictures of graves and tombstones constantly reminding the owner of death, it may even prompt people to start ticking off their ‘bucket list’ with haste.

    Macabre creator Kevin Beresford, 60, has been inundated with orders for the spooky calendar, which offers a 12 month ghostly graveyard tour of Birmingham.

    Full story here!

    The grand and the grotesque: Chilling photographs inside America’s most lavish mausoleums Photographer John Allan Faier has spent the last seven years photographing the homes of the dead, mausoleums filled with the remains of Christians long gone from this world. At once a religious hall, the interiors of the buildings are vastly empty, populated by dated furniture, fluorescent bulbs and thousands of souls. As you enter this world of stained glass and and hidden chambers, remember: you can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave. Full article and more amazing photographs here.

    The grand and the grotesque: Chilling photographs inside America’s most lavish mausoleums

    Photographer John Allan Faier has spent the last seven years photographing the homes of the dead, mausoleums filled with the remains of Christians long gone from this world.

    At once a religious hall, the interiors of the buildings are vastly empty, populated by dated furniture, fluorescent bulbs and thousands of souls.

    As you enter this world of stained glass and and hidden chambers, remember: you can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave.

    Full article and more amazing photographs here.

    As pretty as a picture (but a lot more deadly): Killer diseases from anthrax to the Black Death as you’ve never seen them before They look like works of modern art but these incredible images actually show some of the world’s deadliest diseases - including the Black Death and anthrax. Many of the specimens can have devastating affects on the human body and have caused major epidemics. But the bacteria, invisible to the naked eye, are shown in an extraordinary new light in these stunning images. Click here for more pics and the rest of the article.

    As pretty as a picture (but a lot more deadly): Killer diseases from anthrax to the Black Death as you’ve never seen them before

    They look like works of modern art but these incredible images actually show some of the world’s deadliest diseases - including the Black Death and anthrax.

    Many of the specimens can have devastating affects on the human body and have caused major epidemics.

    But the bacteria, invisible to the naked eye, are shown in an extraordinary new light in these stunning images.

    Click here for more pics and the rest of the article.

    From cherry blossom orchards to windswept hills: The serene landscapes where the bodies of murder victims were disposedRolling hills sprinkled with wild flowers, moss-covered river banks and warm cherry blossom orchards - they are the landscapes of serene beauty. Yet, when the hidden realities of the spaces become clear, they suddenly lose their beauty: these are the spots where the disposed bodies of murder victims were discovered. The series of eerie images is the creation of photographer Stephen Chalmers, who started the project after he found out one of his favourite hiking spots had once harboured dead bodies. ‘We had this fantastic time… and everything was super happy,’ Chalmers told NPR. Yet the memories soured when a friend told him serial killer Ted Bundy had disposed of his victims along the hiking trail - a place law enforcement refer to as a ‘dump site’. ‘And just that little kernel of information really changed how I felt about what was otherwise a really fantastic date,’ he said. ‘I was struck by how my experience of this place was so changed by knowing the history of the location.’

    From cherry blossom orchards to windswept hills: The serene landscapes where the bodies of murder victims were disposed

    Rolling hills sprinkled with wild flowers, moss-covered river banks and warm cherry blossom orchards - they are the landscapes of serene beauty.

    Yet, when the hidden realities of the spaces become clear, they suddenly lose their beauty: these are the spots where the disposed bodies of murder victims were discovered.

    The series of eerie images is the creation of photographer Stephen Chalmers, who started the project after he found out one of his favourite hiking spots had once harboured dead bodies.

    ‘We had this fantastic time… and everything was super happy,’ Chalmers told NPR.

    Yet the memories soured when a friend told him serial killer Ted Bundy had disposed of his victims along the hiking trail - a place law enforcement refer to as a ‘dump site’.

    ‘And just that little kernel of information really changed how I felt about what was otherwise a really fantastic date,’ he said.

    ‘I was struck by how my experience of this place was so changed by knowing the history of the location.’

    In pictures: Auschwitz-Birkenau, then and now

    A new publication by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland shows photographs taken in the extermination camp during World War II alongside pictures of the same locations today. More than a million people - most of them Jewish - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau during World War II.

    Project 12:31

    In 1993, a convicted murderer was executed. His body was given to science, segmented and photographed for medical research. In 2011, we used photography to put it back together. 

    (Photograph by Frank Schott)

    This is absolutely AMAZING. Seriously. Check out the website for the full story and more incredible images. 

    Inside the lost island of New York: eerie pictures of the abandoned leper colony just 350 yards from the Bronx Stairwells strewn with debris and walls crumbling slowly to dust, it is the island that New York forgot for 50 years. Now, in a series of extraordinarily eerie pictures, the lost world of North Brother - quarantine zone, leper colony and centre for drug addicts - has been brought back to life. It is hard to believe that these echoing corridors and abandoned halls were home to hundreds of patients - or that a criss-cross of tree-lined avenues were once roads.  But the haunting quality of these pictures makes it easy to imagine that it was a place of indescribable misery, which one inmate compared to the notorious black hole of Calcutta. Just 350 yards from the crowded tenements of the Bronx, North Brother Island was first employed as a quarantine centre in 1885.  It was soon a home to six lepers. Its most notorious resident was ‘Typhoid Mary’ - the first healthy carrier of any disease ever to be identified - who spent years confined in its bleak woods. North Brother Island was also witness to America’s worst disaster until the 9/11 attacks - the 1904 fire onboard the passenger ship, General Slocum which killed 1,021 people, mainly women and children on a church outing. Closed in 1963, it is now a haunting labyrinth of crumbling ruins. Protected birds are its only inhabitants and the waters around the island are patrolled by armed coastguards who ensure the sanctity of the former quarantine zone is never violated Meanwhile, the hospital, staff and patient quarters and forced drug rehabilitation centres are slowly reverting to nature. These pictures were taken by local historian and photographer Ian Ference who was given unprecedented access to the site. He has slowly pieced together the forgotten story of this unique landscape. ‘This has got to be one of America’s most important places to visit,’ he said. ‘Historically it has had a notorious and sometimes sinister reputation. ‘It was established as a forced quarantine camp for people suffering from infectious and often fatal diseases such as typhoid, scarlet fever, yellow fever and typhus. There were six people suffering from leprosy confined here in wooden huts. ‘New York was taking in a huge number of immigrants in the late nineteenth and earth twentieth centuries - and new arrivals were forced to live in crowded and unsanitary conditions.  ‘Diseases would inevitably spread and once the health authorities identified a person as having a communicable disease they were seized and forced to live on North Brother Island - unless they were rich enough to afford a private clinic. ‘Conditions were bad - the mortality rate among patients was high and the recovery rate low. ‘There was no telephony in those early days so once people were grabbed and taken there - they were often never heard from again by their families.’ Click through for the rest of the article and more incredible photographs.

    Inside the lost island of New York: eerie pictures of the abandoned leper colony just 350 yards from the Bronx

    Stairwells strewn with debris and walls crumbling slowly to dust, it is the island that New York forgot for 50 years.

    Now, in a series of extraordinarily eerie pictures, the lost world of North Brother - quarantine zone, leper colony and centre for drug addicts - has been brought back to life.

    It is hard to believe that these echoing corridors and abandoned halls were home to hundreds of patients - or that a criss-cross of tree-lined avenues were once roads. 

    But the haunting quality of these pictures makes it easy to imagine that it was a place of indescribable misery, which one inmate compared to the notorious black hole of Calcutta.

    Just 350 yards from the crowded tenements of the Bronx, North Brother Island was first employed as a quarantine centre in 1885. 

    It was soon a home to six lepers. Its most notorious resident was ‘Typhoid Mary’ - the first healthy carrier of any disease ever to be identified - who spent years confined in its bleak woods.

    North Brother Island was also witness to America’s worst disaster until the 9/11 attacks - the 1904 fire onboard the passenger ship, General Slocum which killed 1,021 people, mainly women and children on a church outing.

    Closed in 1963, it is now a haunting labyrinth of crumbling ruins. Protected birds are its only inhabitants and the waters around the island are patrolled by armed coastguards who ensure the sanctity of the former quarantine zone is never violated

    Meanwhile, the hospital, staff and patient quarters and forced drug rehabilitation centres are slowly reverting to nature.

    These pictures were taken by local historian and photographer Ian Ference who was given unprecedented access to the site. He has slowly pieced together the forgotten story of this unique landscape.

    ‘This has got to be one of America’s most important places to visit,’ he said. ‘Historically it has had a notorious and sometimes sinister reputation.

    ‘It was established as a forced quarantine camp for people suffering from infectious and often fatal diseases such as typhoid, scarlet fever, yellow fever and typhus. There were six people suffering from leprosy confined here in wooden huts.

    ‘New York was taking in a huge number of immigrants in the late nineteenth and earth twentieth centuries - and new arrivals were forced to live in crowded and unsanitary conditions. 

    ‘Diseases would inevitably spread and once the health authorities identified a person as having a communicable disease they were seized and forced to live on North Brother Island - unless they were rich enough to afford a private clinic.

    ‘Conditions were bad - the mortality rate among patients was high and the recovery rate low.

    ‘There was no telephony in those early days so once people were grabbed and taken there - they were often never heard from again by their families.’

    Click through for the rest of the article and more incredible photographs.