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February 2015 issue
by Ken Light
Finding myself entering the world of Death Row with my
camera was like walking along a very thin line. On the one
hand photographers are told and often expected by editors
and the public to be neutral in their world views. I have in my
own work rejected this notion and like many documentary
photographers before me, felt that the passionate image can
and should be made by an image maker who is impassioned
and concerned about the issues surrounding his subjects.
Too often I have seen photographers simply make good
illustrations that seem disconnected personally to their
subjects. In the ever changing photography world, the
problem is often the lack of time that is given to complete an
assignment, or the photographers lack of willingness to risk
investing themselves and quite often their money into their
work.
There have been times when I have been conflicted by the
subjects I have photographed, but most often I have tried to choose subjects whose humanism I can see and find even
in the most difficult of situations. Many consider this vision of photography to be old fashioned, I find it needed in a
world that seems to largely make heroes of celebrities and the rich.
Clearly in entering Death Row I knew that these average Joe's had committed crimes that were often better not
described. Hollywood doesn't even touch the human tragedy and suffering that has been wrought by many locked
within the Ellis I walls. I knew that my beliefs would be tested by this experience and wondered if I could see the human
side of their world and if they would trust me.
The camera has been for me a way of seeing first hand the worlds of others; worlds that have personally affected the
quality of my own life, but clearly not part of my own world and often not part of my own experience. I had, in the case
of this work, experienced violent crime first hand. I had been robbed one hot summer many years ago and had a
Saturday night special put to my temple, the robbers finger on the trigger, and violently take my money and a camera
from me. I had been lucky and am able to tell the story. I knew that most of the men on the row had been predators of
the same sort, except they might have pulled the trigger.
Death Row allowed me to enter a place so deeply hidden that I couldn't begin to visualize what it might be like. And so,
I entered this process with little knowledge of what to expect, my only view being that I believed the death penalty to
be an archaic form of justice. I do believe in justice, and I do believe in paying for one's acts, but I don't believe that
killing whether done by an individual or the state apparatus is anywhere nearing a 21st century answer to the problem
of crime.
Over the years I have continued to watch as men I photographed and conversed with are executed. I came to know a
few well, they told me their stories, I heard their appologies for the crimes they committed. But it is hard to come to
terms with the fact that over 65 of the men pictured in My book Texas Death Row have been executed by the State of
Texas.
I think that Sister Helen Prejean said it quite simply, “If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our
society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”
The fraction of a second that the camera allows you to freeze the moment is an amazing miracle of the invention of
photography . It has allowed me to share some of the what I saw, some of what I was allowed to see, and some of
what was created for my camera. It also has allowed me to freeze death row inmate Richard Beaver's as he looks
deeply into the last light before his execution, this photograph can also create a false sense of what one is looking at.
Let their be no illusion, Richard Beavers is no more.
Main Entrance to Ellis I Unit, Texas Death Row, Brownsville Texas. © Ken Light
Night View of H Wing cell block, Texas Death Row. © Ken Light
J23 Wing Maximum Segregation Unit, Texas Death Row.
© Ken Light
O.J. Simpson on Death Row. © Ken Light
Todd Willingham on his bunk, Work Capable cell block (executed by lethal injection 2004). Eight years after Todd was
executed for setting a fire that killed his three children, The New Yorker magazine published a story that now widely
faulted the State for its use of flawed arson science in his conviction, his relatives are seeking a posthumous pardon
from state officials. © Ken Light
Thomas Miller-El, One week after a stay of execution, Texas Death Row. One of Dallas County's most notorious death
penalty cases ended quietly in 2008, after more than two decades when Thomas Miller-El pleaded guilty to capital
murder and aggravated robbery in a deal that spares his life but virtually assures that he will die in prison. © Ken Light
Randy visiting with his two year-old daughter, Visiting Room, Texas Death Row (executed by lethal injection).
© Ken Light
Martin Draughton greeting his mother, Visiting Room, Texas Death Row. In 2006 Martin’s conviction was overturned,
partly because of problems in the Houston Police Dept. crime lab, he walked out of Death Row after being paroled. © KL
Jessy San Miguel, Single-man recreation yard, Maximum segregation cell block, Texas Death Row (executed by lethal
injection 2000). © Ken Light
Robert Tennard, Work Capable cell block, Texas Death Row. In 2006 Robert’s 1985 capital murder case was sent back
to Harris County for a penalty phase retrial so jurors could consider his IQ of 67.His lawyers negotiated to keep him
behind bars for life rather than be executed. © Ken Light
Emerson Rudd, J-23 wing, Maximum Segregation cell block (executed by lethal injection 2001). © Ken Light
Inmates playing chess on handmade board, Administrative Segregation cell block, Texas Death Row. © Ken Light
Last Meal of Richard Beavers. © Ken Light
Haircut, Administrative segregation unit, Texas Death Row. © Ken Light
Bobby West with his Cub Scout picture (executed by lethal injection, 1997). J-21 wing, Maximum Segregation.
© Ken Light
Glen McGinnis, On his twenty-first birthday (executed by
lethal injection 2000) Glen came to Death Row as a
juvenile at 17 and his case was taken up by Amnesty
International and the Pope to no avail. © Ken Light
Richard Beavers, The Last Light, (executed Easter
Sunday ,1994). © Ken Light
Weight lifter with makeshift barbells, H-20 wing, work capable cell block, Texas Death Row (executed by lethal injection
2004). © Ken Light
Baptism of Robert Anderson, Texas Death Row (executed by lethal injection 2006). © Ken Light
Execution chamber at “The Walls”, Huntsville Texas. © Ken Light