no seconds
cw: crime, murder, abduction, rape, terrorism, necrophilia and state execution.
Henry Hargreaves, various images from No Seconds, 2013. All images © Henry Hargreaves.
Until 2011, Texas death row inmates were able to request a ‘special meal’ a personalised last supper consisting of almost anything. Fascinated by the mundane and extraordinary, New Zealand photographer Henry Hargreaves created the series No Seconds exploring the last suppers of criminals executed under the American penal system.
He describes the practice as totally unfamiliar, leftover from a bygone era, a “bit of civility, [before] ‘hey, we are going to kill you but what would you like to eat?’” [1] Hargreaves inquired with several prisons about photographing actual last meals but was refused. Instead, he decided to recreate the meals in his apartment, serving up food as the great leveller.
Like many creatives, Hargreaves has an employment history in the food and hospitality industry and cites this as having sparked an interest in “peoples requests…what they ordered [and what that] said about their character and personality. I try to bring this idea into my work by showing the connections visually.” [2]
In preparing, staging and photographing things that these inmates elected (or in some cases, declined) to eat, Hargreaves found the process evocative. When presented with a tangible, embodied experience of these people – rendered in the familiar smells, textures and tastes of fried chicken, overdone eggs or pecan pie – these images produce a strange effect that almost humanises media-saturated monsters and anonymous faces of death. Hargreaves leaves the interpretations of each meal up to the viewer and hopes the series holds a mirror up, revealing something about the viewer in their reaction to each piece.
[1] Henry Hargreaves, No Seconds, artist’s description via website.
[2] Jay Rayner, Last Meals on Death Row, a Peculiarly American Fascination for The New York Times. 10 March 2020.
