The Final, Decisive Moment
A partial photographic history of executions.
Warning: This story contains graphic photographs. Viewer discretion is advised.
“I have never been able to make a sharp picture of executions,” LIFE magazine photographer Carl Mydans said. “It has nothing to do with the imperfections of my camera or my own failure as a photographer. It has to do, I now understand, with an inward revolt, a self-revolt against my taking such pictures.”1
That’s profound.
In 1944, Mydans photographed French resistance fighters executing six Nazi collaborators in Grenoble. The “imperfections” in Mydans’ photo are ghostlike.
Mydans’ quote, specifically his admission of an “inward revolt,” warrants deeper reflection and inspired me to look back at other photos of executions throughout history. Some took on new meaning, others less so.
The first photo of an execution was taken by Felice Beato in 1858, of two Indian mutineers sentenced to death by hanging.