Die Like A Dog

Death, dead, dying, passed away….

In the 19th century portrait photography of deceased family members were common place to those who could afford a photographer.

Theorist Susan Sontag likened the photograph to a death mask, writing ‘all photographs are memento mori that enable participation in another’s mortality’.

Sontag states also that “Photographs turn the present into past,….” 

If you want to read a good review of one of photography’s greatest theorists then you can read this NY Times review on Roland Barthes “Camera Lucida” after it was published in 1981. Basically it states that Barthes grief over the death of his mother influenced the whole theory. What ever your thoughts it is an interesting read.

Portraits of deceased individuals is seen as a macabre project, and we often do not have a choice of when or where or how we die, but I hope to remove the mystique and taboo, with this body of work.

As a volunteer photographer for Heartfelt but also as a radiographer working in major trauma centres many years ago, I have been exposed to death. I think as a society we can do it better, more empathetically, and with this in mind I am creating this body of work telling different stories.

The images below are only a small selection of the images I made over the 24-48 hours of Billy’s life. Billy and I dated for a while, but more than that we were great friends, shared an interest in photography, business, golf and music. I was only a small part of his life during the last 10 years of his short life. When he was dying there were family and other friends there to be with him. Everyone there at the time consented to me photographing what was happening. Billy wanted me to photograph it! Since then, some people have withdrawn their consent for their person to be seen. This has saddens me greatly, as Billy’s wish was for me to document his dying and ultimately his death.

• I was a finalist in the Head On portrait prize with the portrait of Billy and Bones his dog and invited to show the work as part of the Head On photo Festival in 2010. The name of the exhibition was called Die Like a Dog. Die Like A Dog is not a literal definition of Billy’s death, far from it. His death of which he, his parents and everyone who was there was a beautiful profound experience and part of life.