Comments on: Julia Ziegler-Haynes Recreates and Photographs Last Meals of Death Row Inmates

By: suze57

suze57 — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 22:44:00 +0000

The death penalty is just plain wrong. How are we any better if we commit the very crime we are punishing an inmate for? Keep them in prison for the duration of their lives and let them wake up each day to the end knowing where they are and why.

By: John Paul Bichard

John Paul Bichard — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:20:00 +0000

This has been done several times before – first one I remember was James Reynolds who took a more formal and arguably more engaging/disturbing approach (and far better photography!) http://www.jwgreynolds.co.uk/index.php?/last-suppers/ Reynolds works fetishise the food in a way that reflects the way that society fetishises the prisoner and the ritual of institutional murder. The way the ‘penalty’ is a carried out is a very strange mix of the very personal last moments: their last meal, their last words; and the contrasting reduction of the body to state owned object: the efficient, industrial means of ending life that emphasises the utter hopelessness and finality of the death penalty. It has always been a macabre display of power of the state over power of the individual and the resultant ownership of self which is eloquently summed up in these food works, particularly Reynolds.
As a side note, I wish F-Stoppers would do a bit more research on their photo ‘essays’ it is really sloppy to put forward a body of work as seemingly ‘original’ when it is part of a line of similar works…

By: John Godwin

John Godwin — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 03:25:00 +0000

Hey Andrew, good to hear back from you, dude. Did you go and see the McDonalds burger exhibition yet? If you’re still on the fence about visiting, remember that it’s not just burgers down there. They’ve got, like, shots of apple pies, frozen ice cream, little chicken strips, etc.. Really great if you like this kind of stuff. Huge backlit prints hanging from the ceiling; very intense.

I’m quite sure that even for a discerning intellectual powerhouse such as yourself, there’s something to appreciate. They don’t have the same backstory as these shots, but you can absolutely guarantee that 99% of people on death row ate there at least once before they committed their ultimate crime. Now that, we can both agree, is some way deep arty shit only the most cultured can fully appreciate.

By: Andrew Gilmore

Andrew Gilmore — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 21:57:00 +0000

Uh-huh. So, in quick succession, a nazi reference followed by a post which boils down to ‘it’s, like, my opinion and stuff’.

You could not be any more of an internet cliché if you tried.

Let me fill you in on something, John – something which people like you tend to forget. It’s perfectly true that you are entitled to your opinion, however stupid that opinion may be, and it’s also true that you are entitled to express said idiotic opinion at your leisure.

What you are not entitled to is to publicly express an ill-informed, ill-educated and ignorant opinion without somebody pointing out the flaws in your logic.

Keep it in mind. I suspect you have a lifetime of this ahead.

By: Simon Lynch

Simon Lynch — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:52:00 +0000

You’re looking at it wrong. what kind of lighting can possible render justice (no pun intented) to these sad, disturbing meals. The last meal of your life.

Since no lighting magic could possibly convey correctly the intensity of that moment/meal, I rather like the simple, flat, dull lighting.

the last meal of your life CAN’T be excyting in any way… why should the lighting be?

By: Simon Lynch

Simon Lynch — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:50:00 +0000

I’m impressed. It took 3 comments for the shitstorm to hit.

I like to imagine the person judging from their last meal. I can get the guy who orders “art-ts7″ (really, you should number the pictures more clearly…), but the simple coffee pot? the olive? Disturbing.

By: Michael Delman

Michael Delman — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 03:26:00 +0000

Interesting concept, awful execution (you should pardon the phrase). These photographs are lazy and convey nothing of the experience. A simple list of the meals would have much more impact than these flat photos. Not worthy of your generally excellent website.

By: Martinvh

Martinvh — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 02:17:00 +0000

LoL, an eye for an eye ey ?
So, if somebody steals from you, steal it back
if somebody kills a persone you like,.. kill him.
or better yet, if somebody rapes your gf, rape his,.. or just the same, shoot the mf,…
We could save a lot of money !! no justice system needed at all!!

For crying out loud man! your photographs are realy good !! But that state of mind is from like a few centuries ago,… It’s like acting on natural instinct instead of thinking,…
Yes, serial killers, rapists and such criminals need to be punished, and do not have to have even a little change of getting back in the community!!
But just simply killing them like “an eye for an eye” Is nothing more than lowering yourself to their level,…..And makes you nothing close to better than they are!

Like i said earlier on, I’m from the netherlands,.. and the justice system here could, and should be a lot harder,… prisons should be a lot more sober,… no tv, nothing just a bed, a toilet and maybe a table. No more early release etc etc,…
But the deathpenalty is something i myself find very dumb,… it’s like an act of despair, like the saying “all muscle, no brains”,… Now-a-day’s we think, we try to find soloutions for problems instead of just ignoring they are there.

By: john_mil

john_mil — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Well, the US is a democracy in the sense the power is to the people and they do have election and elect their representative in matter which even if sometimes raises questions is generally admitted as a democracy.
Then having a death penalty is the choice of the people of that country, I am not from their country but I respect their choice to run their own country the way they want.
Now one can be unhappy about what are the choice made by the majority of person in a democracy, but that’s a regular debate that’s why there are elections on a regular basis.
Now if a democracy is not good enough, as it doesn’t tend to get the best out of the people, that would be an invention, one which is not invented yet.
With these kind of recurring debate and the crisis in Greece (where the people do not recognise the choice made by a previous government, which is ironical in a place tht invented the concept in the first place), maybe we are looking at the end of Democracy, for the greater good.

By: Martin Melnick

Martin Melnick — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 05:25:00 +0000

What you don’t understand I guess is that it actually costs more money to execute someone on death row than to imprison them for life. This is due to excessive trial costs, appeals costs and red tape needed to perform said execution. That however is not my problem with the death penalty. How about the fact that although small, there is a percentage of inmates who are put to death and then later found to be innocent. I don’t care how small the percentage is, if it is possible that we might be executing innocent people, then it should not be allowed.
Plus, it’s A. more expensive, B. Hypocritical in the context of a society that claims to be modern and not barbarous, and C. not allowing any room for potential rehab – not all inmates on death row are massive evil serial killers by the way….