A Day in the Life of Death. - A short photo documentary.
Death is a tragedy, but its something that happens every second of every day. Thanatophobia is the fear of death, more specifically being dead or dying. It is a very complicated type of phobia. In the US the fear of death is 68% along side this with horror films being one of the top sellers in the box offices, playing on people's fears and emotions. People loved to be scared, for some people its too much to take in and they can't enjoy the production. Horror films and and photography is often stigmatised as only being used to scare the audience, but they can be used for a much wider range. Such as 'shockvertising', a very strong subject matter. In this short project I hoped to take the fear out of horror photography creating a dark comedy within this work, to allow people to enjoy the production.
The Grim Reaper is the physical embodiment of death according to the Bible and Mexican folklore. Often represented as a robed skeleton with a scythe, the Grim Reaper was so named because he was believed to "reap" the souls of the living, thus robbing them of life. He is also known as Death, El Muerte, The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse and He Who Rides the Pale Horse.
The Grim Reaper doing everyday normal activities, wouldn't that be a sight to be seen, acting like a normal human being? What would he do.. Like everyone, they'll have there washing to do, I'm sure that robe would get dirty fast. Running low on food, trip to the supermarket, even Death has to eat, right? It's the weekend, why not treat yourself to a chippy lunch whilst that washing is finishing up. Now, with a high profile job like being the Grim Reaper, why slum it on the bus, he can afford to avoid those screaming children kicking on the back of your seat, a taxi will drop you off right outside his door or gates of hell..?
The HDR worked excatly how I visualised, creating the gritty textures giving the 'dirty' unreal nature to the images. Exaggerating every detail and showing the full range of the light in the images.
Although visually my work didn't come out how I had planned, with many problems of the days of my shoot, the weather being one of my enemy's. I think I managed to tell the story well and that my point carried across. Death is everywhere, but we can't put our life on hold waiting and wondering if it's the time.
I've learnt a lot in during this process, especially about HDR. More importantly I've learnt more how I want to use my photography and especially my skills in horror photography to a new level. As before my point wasn't to directly scare, but to take fear out. However there's many cases were I believe fear is an important part of life and quality of life. This next and finial part of my final major project I'll be looking into the dangerous of smoking, how it effects our health and creating advertisement aimed at 16 - 25 year old's to help create a Smoke-Free long life.
