A collaboration with Food & Prop Stylist Johanna Lowe
"Death Warmed Up" is a six part series exploring the idea of death by food; where humans unconsciously or actively bring about their demise through the ingestion of food and or drink. Inspired by real events.
This image plays with the trope of "a hair in the soup" and is inspired by the tale of a powerful Roman senator undone by a single hair in his milk.
We found the real life tale that inspired this image to be startlingly tragic. A 60 year old woman was discovered by her husband having committed suicide having drank a 1000ml bottle of shoyu, Japanese soy sauce. Forensic scientists concluded her death was caused by massive pulmonary edema from ingesting a lethal amount of sodium.
The body of a 31 year old man was discovered by a lake with several emptied fish tins nearby. Further investigation found the man was allergic to fish protein and had suffered from severe depression. The autopsy concluded suicide by anaphylaxis.
This ominous image is inspired by the death of 12th US President, Zachary Taylor. After consuming a large quantity of iced cherries and chilled milk at July 4th celebrations, Taylor returned to the White House complaining of abdominal distress. A fever ensued and he succumbed five days later. It is widely accepted that "cholera morbus" was to blame.
A man in considerable debt slowly poisoned his wife by spiking her sports drinks with increasing amounts of antifreeze. After delivering the fatal dose, he collected her life insurance and began a new job as a radio show host in another state. He was eventually betrayed by his own web history, having searched “ethylene glycol death human” two days prior to her death.
Lucrezia Borgia was known to have poisoned several of her political and romantic rivals. She wore a poison ring which enabled her to spike victim's drinks without drawing attention.