Name: Ted Bundy; Last meal: Steak, eggs, hash browns, coffee; Sentence: Death by electric chair; Executed: January 24, 1989, 7:16am; State: Florida
Jonathon Kambouris was born in 1982 and raised outside Detroit, Michigan. Growing up he had a strict balance of suburban normalcy with strong roots to the inner city of downtown Detroit. He moved to New York in 2001 to study photography at Parsons The New School for Design. Since then he’s been shooting many editorial and commercial assignments, while keeping a strong emphasis on personal work.
Of this series ‘Last Meals‘, he writes, ‘The series visually documents the face and last meal of convicted killers. I created this project to explore the interesting and unique relationship humans have with food and used the last meal as a metaphor to raise questions about the death penalty. In 2010 this photo essay traveled to Singapore to be shown in the Singapore Fringe Festival: Art and the Law. Ironically, Singapore has an extremely strict death penalty stance and I was informed that it is part of school curriculum to watch an execution take place. This is an ongoing project and I am currently researching publishers to make this into a photo book’.
Name: Gerald Lee Mitchell; Last meal: One bag of assorted jolly ranchers; Sentence: Death by lethal injection; Executed: October 22, 2001, 8:17pm; State: Texas
Name: Daniel Harold Rolling; Last meal: Lobster tail, shrimp, strawberry cheese cake; Sentence: Death by lethal injection; Executed: October 25, 2006, 6:15pm; State: Florida
Name: Timothy McVeigh; Last meal: Two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream; Sentence: Death by lethal injection; Executed: June 11, 2001, 7:14pm; State: Indiana
Name: Victor Feguer; Last meal: A single unpitted olive; Sentence: Death by hanging; Executed: March 15, 1963; State: Iowa
Name: Aileen Carol Wuornos; Last meal: 1 cup of coffee; Sentence: Death by lethal injection; Executed: October 9, 2002, 9:47am; State: Florida
Name: Reginald Lenard Reeves; Last meal: Four Pieces of fried chicken and two cokes; Sentence: Death by lethal injection; Executed: May 9, 2002, 6:22pm; State: Texas
Name: Gary Leon Brown; Last meal: Ice cream sandwich; Sentence: Death by lethal injection; Executed: April 24, 2003; State: Alabama
Name: Jonathan Wayne Nobles; Last meal: Eucharist, Sacrament; Sentence: Death by lethal injection; Executed: October 7, 1998, 6:18pm; State: Texas
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I like this series a bit more…
http://www.jwgreynolds.co.uk/index.php?/last-suppers/
This Series by Jonathon was very powerful. Documenting the face and meal of each serial killer was disturbing yet engaging. It was interesting to see their final decision as a human being and I walked away wanting to know more after viewing this Series. Powerful and intriguing; would love to see this made into a book.
And both Jonathon and James ripped the idea off from Celia Shapiro who did executed prisoners last meals back in 2004. You can see hers at Mother Jones:
http://motherjones.com/photoessays/2004/01/last-suppers
Celia’s approach is the deepest, James’s is too abstract, and Jonathan’s too blunt. Never mind that both gentlemen are being derivative.
I personally think the James’ photo essay is the strongest. The last meals speak through the images, whereas the food seems to get lost in the dark background in Celia’s.
http://inspiredstreet.tumblr.com/ you have been blogged. LOVED IT!
I would love to see more from this series. Jolly ranchers? So much to be said.