Output details

SUICIDE NOTES. (21 photographic prints, Artist’s Book) Cooper Gallery, DJCAD, University of Dundee (2010); Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2010); Cleveland Museum of Art, (2012)

Braham collated newspaper articles relating to incidents of suicide in landscape locations across Scotland and took photographs at these sites. Scotland has the 3rd highest rate of suicide in Europe, but publicity is suppressed at the request of the Scottish Government agency Choose Life.

Braham developed these research questions:

To what extent does suppressing publicity about acts of suicide partition a social problem that increases a sense of alienation in potential future victims, and could open acceptance ameliorate the problem?

Is it possible to produce images that evoke empathy while respecting the privacy of the individual, to stimulate debate through exhibitions and publications?

Would this benefit society and cultural exchange?

Braham interviewed journalists, read policy documents, communicated with victim’s families, participated in academic seminars (and took ethical advice before developing the project). Victim’s identities were redacted and photographs were made only in the general vicinity of the sites. One aim was to evoke a sense of serenity, to act as a counterpoint to the emotional turbulence that lay behind the suicide act.

Initial exposure caused outrage in the local press, making headline news spilling into the national press, though private endorsements flowed too. Cautious acknowledgement followed when the project was presented within the context of a sensitively mounted public exhibition.

‘Suicide Notes’ won the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award 2009 (£5000), enabling a related project, later presented as a solo exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy within the Edinburgh Arts Festival, 2010, (‘Critics Choice’, Times 7/8/10). A portfolio was published in specialist art magazine ‘Ag’. The project was further disseminated at conferences and symposia. International recognition followed: the series was purchased by a world-class private art foundation in Beirut, and Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio included ‘Suicide Notes’ in 'DIY: Photographers & Books', (curator Barbara Tannenbaum 2012).