Sites of Public Exectution is an ongoing series that I began in 2001, for which I have been researching, photographing and making short films of sites that had been used for public executions at different times in history.  When I began this project in 2001, there was a group of people petitioning for Timothy McVeigh's execution to be televised, the modern form of a public arena. It occurred to me that this desire to watch people being killed, as perceived justice, is still alive in America and the Middle East, where the death penalty still exists. I wanted to compare what I was finding here with countries that have changed their laws, to see what happened as policy and the function of a public place changed, and to discover what it held of its history. Some of the places used for executions became sites with veneration to the executed, such at St. Peter's Square in Rome or the town of Salem, MA where the accused witches were hung.  Some sites are now well known for other reasons, such as the Louvre, in front of which the guillotine was installed during the French Revolution.  It appears that the way in which the history of the place has been remembered by those who create the public persona (either capitalizing on the executions or covering them up with other events that occured in these places) seemed to say more to me about present day morality and values in each country than the abolishment or continuation of capital punishment.

The photographs in this series are sepia-toned silver prints presented in french mats. This presentation is a reference to historical photographs and cataloguing of images made for documentation purposes. Each of the mats have calligraphic titles describing the dates and types of executions that occurred on that site, rather than the name and place pictured, as is customary. By subverting the viewers expectations of what they will find written, I hope to make them question what they thought they knew of these places.

In the future, I would like to visit some of countries that are still performing public executions and shed light on some of these current atrocities, such as the 13-year old rape victim was publicly stoned to death for adultery in Somalia in October of 2008 or the ongoing beheadings of foreign journalists and contractors in Iraq, or the public executions of women in Iran and Saudi Arabia for trying to gain human rights for women.

With these images, I hope that viewers will consider the role we play in creating our society’s legacy and future.

Sites of Public Execution book available for purchase here.

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