Grisly Morgue Photo
Bronwyn Mehan
August 31
I’d like to open a debate about the inclusion of the photograph of backyard abortion victim, Mabel Ambrose’s head in Meanjin Vol 3/2010. I think the text of ‘The Morgue’ by historian, Rachael Weaver, more than adequately canvasses the bizarre aspects of this specific case, as well as the general phenomenon of the Nineteenth century practice of displaying unidentified corpses to the general public. I think the inclusion of the photo exposes the essay to some of the criticisms it raises about the Parisian and Melbourne morgues and the contemporary newspapers. For instance, the inclusion of the photo could be seen as sensationalism, gratuitous and ‘satisfying (or at least titillating) a range of darker sensibilities’.
I am genuinely puzzled by my response to the inclusion of the photograph. After all, I usually have no problems with our darker sensibilities being stimulated. And I’m not concerned, like the Bulletin hypocritically purported to be, with a notion of ‘good taste’. Is it that I am unduly influenced by the context of Mabel Ambrose’s death and that a sense of protectiveness is turning me into an advocate for censorship?
I’d like to know what others think.
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Comments
31 Aug 10 at 11:43
My intention in including this photo was not to reproduce the sensationalism of the contemporary press accounts, although I think it does convey the lurid aspects of what happened there in a way that no written account ever could. What is interesting about the image is the immediacy with which it invokes in the contemporary viewer many of the same kinds of concerns and responses that arose in the public debates at the time of the case. This possibly helps shift the frame of the article from being a kind of historical curio (which ‘canvasses the bizarre aspects’ of the past), into a more direct engagement with this strange and fascinating cultural phenomenon.
...31 Aug 10 at 12:04
Grisly, I think.
...01 Sep 10 at 20:21
I have seen “grisly” misspelled twice lately, both times on the Internet. It is really depressing to find it on the Meanjin magazine blog site in bold type. Didn’t Rodney Hall once write a novel titled “The Grisly Wife”?
Please, please hire a sub-editor.
The fact that Geordie Williamson praises Sophie Cunningham’s blog in the latest ABR makes me hopeful that she will take some interest in getting things like this done right.
...02 Sep 10 at 8:44
John, we can’t afford a sub editor on the blog, I’m afraid, though use one on the print edition. What we can do is change the errors more quickly, when discovered – as I’ve done here.
...02 Sep 10 at 12:09
Maybe get an intern to check the blog copy.
I kid, I kid.
...