Execution in Bangkok, anonymous, c. 1880 - c. 1890

albumen print, h 207mm × w 273mm More details

Habits of looking change from century to century. A 19th-century traveller had absolutely no qualms about purchasing this gruesome picture and taking it home to paste in his travel album. It is a bizarre souvenir of a cruel violence. Nowadays we can hardly bear to look at this scene; three decapitated heads impaled on pikes, the bodies sprawled in the background. And what about the photographer? He earned a living taking such pictures.