I've just come across Sound Portraits, an archive of stories by producer David Isay, who went on to found Story Corps. Story Corps was one of the first series I listened to when I started downloading podcasts, and I keep coming back to it. I love the humble format of a short conversation between two people about a formative moment in their relationship, and the implicit message that mutual respect and the space to talk and reflect are to be valued.
The Sound Portrait stories I've heard so far have a similar simplicity and space to them. I really like the way a key character provides the narration, which is woven around different voices collectively telling the story.
Witness to an Execution uses this spareness to great effect to address a topic that's heavily loaded, but steers clear of emotion or judgement and simply communicates the reality through small details observed by bystanders.
The most striking image for me was the moment where the condemned person is strapped onto the bed. It felt like the turning point where their life is about to end, and the image of them being attended to by several people strapping them in makes it palpable.
My favourite thing about radio is the way it can foster empathy through the imaginative leap you need to make to build a picture through voice alone, and this piece is a great example. For me, it got the tone, the length and the balance between voices just right.
The photo above is from the series An Execution Night Timeline by Scott Langley. Langley does a similar thing with images that Isay does with sound, and it's an eerie experience to first listen, then look at the photos that document so many similar details.
Langley has dedicated the last 15 years to documenting and campaigning against the death penalty. His website, the Death Penalty Photography Documentary project is an online archive of thousands of images of the hidden world of the death house, which he makes available for educators and campaigners, in the great tradition of documentary photography as activism.
Photo by Scott Langley, used with permission.
http://www.deathpenaltyphoto.org/about.html
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