Death and digital photography

Death as we know it cannot be our death, but is always instead the deaths of others. This essay will consider the new possibilities for the representation of dying and death in Australia that have been enabled by the now widespread use of digital photography and the internet. Evidence suggests that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCultural studies review Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 125 - 145
Main Author Ennis, Helen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Carleton Melbourne University Publishing 01.03.2011
Subjects
Art exhibits
Art history
Cellular telephones
Colloquial language
Death & dying
Digital photography
Digital techniques
Internet
Mortality
Photography
Postmortem photography
Privacy
Social aspects
Australia
New York
Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia
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Summary:Death as we know it cannot be our death, but is always instead the deaths of others. This essay will consider the new possibilities for the representation of dying and death in Australia that have been enabled by the now widespread use of digital photography and the internet. Evidence suggests that photographing the dying and dead in Australia, practiced in the second half of the nineteenth century, did not re-emerge on a significant scale until the 1980s. In the last ten years, digital photography and the internet have ushered in a new era, giving their users unprecedented degrees of control and privacy. Here, I provide some historical context for these developments, showing how photography has been intimately involved with the representation of death since its earliest applications in Australia.
Bibliography:CULSTUREV2.jpg
Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, Mar 2011: 125-145
ISSN:1837-8692
1446-8123
1837-8692
DOI:10.5130/csr.v17i1.1967