Looking at Death - Hardcover

Norfleet, Barbara P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0879239646 ISBN 13: 9780879239640

Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, 1994

Synopsis

In centuries past, death was a close companion, an expected visitor. Disease and war, infant mortality and natural disasters eliminated lives routinely. Death was real, and close, and viewed not with terror or astonishment but resignation and compassion.

With this century, attitudes began to change. We assumed that medicine would eradicate disease, that wars would cease and civil order would prevail. If we could not eradicate death, at least we would extend life.

But the past two decades have seen the tides turn. Death seems to be everywhere. Random killings level the innocent with the implicated. AIDS stalks relentlessly. Even our old enemy tuberculosis is resurgent. Death has come back to life.

This extraordinary book, assembled from the vast photographic archives of Harvard University, offers an unflinching look at death as it has been portrayed and experienced over the past 150 years. We see it on stage, in the laboratory, on the streets, and in the home. We see it as a consequence of old age, violence, accidents, and disease. The images contain elements of humor, pathos, anguish, and artifice. This is a book that will provoke thought (and even outrage) and help us come to terms with this natural event in our lives and perhaps, in making us understand its finality, to appreciate better the gift of life.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

This collection of 107 black-and-white photographs spanning 150 years, assembled from Harvard University archives, offers an eclectic and often gruesome portrayal of death, whether from violence or disease, at the theater or at home. Photographer Norfleet ( Manscape with Beasts ) contributes several insightful essays on attitudes and portrayals of death, suggesting that "death has not only ceased to be a taboo subject, we once again have become preoccupied with it." The "graceful and romantic" death as portrayed on stage is contrasted to the ironic and graphic photographs taken at or used in medical schools. A stomach-wrenching section portrays violent death, from a grotesque Mussolini to splayed bodies of children murdered by gas. Most arresting are photographs of death's remains, such as one depicting a Capuchin church in Rome decorated with skulls. Family photographs of the dead, as well as photographs of mourning and ritual, conclude the book. The collection's variety can be a drawback; a concentration on one theme would have been more powerful. Norfleet acknowledges that more recent photographs of death are rare, and that the book lacks images of inner-city violence and AIDS.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0879239646
• ISBN 13: 9780879239640
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 141