End Scenes

For her series entitled “Death Wooed Us,” photographer Donna J. Wan focused on suicide locations:

The beauty of Wan’s newest series belies the dark associations that drew her to these vistas. “I’ve always loved the California coast,” she says. But she struggles to say that these are locations where people have taken their own lives. Wan is no stranger to these emotional lands, having grappled with thoughts of suicide in the depths of postpartum depression. Her research into these sites started at her lowest point, and has continued since. The project has changed in meaning as she’s recovered.

While photographing one site for the project, Wan overheard someone, having been told the site was the scene of several suicides, say “I can understand why, it’s so beautiful here.” It raised Wan’s hackles, because she understands the contradiction between the beauty of these locations and the violence of the deaths that occurred there. She wants to correct the misconception that jumping from a bridge is quick and painless. On the contrary, it results in multiple internal injuries and fractures, and the cause of death is often drowning or hypothermia.

See more of Wan’s work here.