The Impact of Visual Rhetoric

“No Seconds” and “The Last Meal Project” are great examples of how to express feelings, capture moments in time, and present information through visual rhetoric. This creates an interactive, engaging presentation of information you could easily read in an article, but this artistic alternative allows the audience to gain a better understanding of the obscure concept behind the last meal before execution. It enables you to embody and relate to these unrelatable people and ask yourself what would your last meal be? I appreciate visual rhetoric and the ability it has to draw you in to a world you would not normally explore. Both of these projects do just that. Even though they are focused on a central topic and have some overlapping characters in their presentations, they both take a different approach in the illustration of such events. These small differences in the visual rhetoric they chose to implement makes for two very different projects.  

The captivating images in Henry Hargreaves‘ “No Seconds”, a series of 10 stark photographs that re-create the actual last suppers of condemned prisoners, brings the world of the prisoner on death row to life. In an interview with Wired Magazine, Hargreaves explained how he was prohibited from access to the prisons and that there was no imagery available of the real thing, so he created these faux documentary photos. His choices in plastic plates or cutlery as the backdrop for the food were chosen based on aesthetic value and their ability to evoke an overall mood through the composition of each image. More than likely the prisons did not present these final morsels in such a loving way with decorative utensils and platters, but Hargreaves uses of the varied backgrounds makes each photo more believable than the last.

Hargreaves said he began the project after reading about Texas’ efforts to end the tradition of offering condemned prisoners an elaborate final meal. This was due to a particular prisoner taking the tradition to the extreme by asking for an elaborate meal that he ended up not even eating.  The concept of offering some small amount of civility in such a brutal, inhumane scenario is what captured Hargreaves attention. By representing this information visually it creates a lasting impact on the viewer. Hargreaves himself cooked and plated the meals and then climbed a shaky ladder to photograph the captivating installation.

This same topic was also the inspiration for Jonathon Kambouris, in “The Last Supper Project,” where he visually documents the face and last meal of convicted killers in order to question how society is really served by the death penalty. Whereas Hargreaves took the approach of creating visually pleasing images to translate an interesting tradition about the national imprisonment system, Kambouris tries to evoke a more critical response from his viewers. By providing the picture of the actual prisoner with the food displayed as merely a caption beneath there enlarged mug shots, the audience is truly forced to look at the reality of the situation-that these were once living and breathing human beings. He also intertwines random facts about the prison system and the death penalty throughout the slideshow, which further asserts his position against the death penalty as a whole.

Both of these are examples of how visual rhetoric can determine the entire meaning behind a presentation. Two artists can chose the same subject but through their choices of how to display and depict these facts through imagery they can create two totally different moods. Hargreaves creates something that is visually stunning, while Kambouris tries to capture the absurdity behind the concept that death is an effective way to prevent future crime. However, both presentations make their viewers think. Think about what there last meal would be. Think about why so many inmates chose fried food or “comfort food.” Think about the implementation of death that has been practiced and supported by so many countries for centuries, and whether or not an individual should ever be presented with the choice of what there last meal will be.