Siloquies and Soliloquies on Death, Life and Other Interludes, 2016

Complex political, human and social issues are rarely conceptualized outside the canonical photo-documentary.

Siloquies and Soliloquies on Death, Life and Other Interludes was produced following research carried out at the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (INMLCF), in Portugal, over 3 years.

This project proposes to scrutinise the tensions and contradictions inherent in the representation and imagination of death,  the deep rooted anxieties around ethics and aesthetics that inevitably arise when documentary photography and questions of visibility intersect and the decisive but deeply paradoxical role that photography – with its epistemological, aesthetic and ethical implications – has played in the  intelligibility and perception of death.

I was interested in seeking answers for questions such as: what distinguishes a documental image of a corpse or a crime scene from an image that reproduces the staged creation of a mental image of a corpse or a crime scene? What effect do these differences have in the viewer’s imagination and what ethical issues do they raise or resolve?


During my collaboration with the INMLC, I worked closely with forensic pathologists and  law enforcement, enabling me to  shadow autopsies and active crime-scene investigations .

However, I decided early on this should  not be the focus of the work. I consciously avoided the depiction of potentially graphic and sensationalist material, opting instead for a conscientious approach that explored the tension between revelation and concealment.

A large number of images focus, therefore, on forensic evidence such as suicide letters, crime and suicide tools, objects inherent in the work of the pathologist as well the Institute’s photographic archive and historical case files.