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Morgue: Jeffrey Silverthorne's document of death in 1970s America

In 1972, American photographer Jeffrey Silverthorne was twenty-five, was four years married, his second child had just been born, and the Vietnam War was still flowering death. Change and death were in the air, and the Morgue was where Silverthorne could find physical evidence of this feeling.

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All images courtesy of Stanley/Barker

All images courtesy of Stanley/Barker

After proposing a documentary project to the state’s Attorney General, he, to Silverthorne’s surprise, said yes. A corpse is sent to the state morgue if there are unknown or violent circumstances surrounding the death. Over time the project evolved into anything but a documentary, it became a portrait of dreams and failures, a residue of realities all rendered by Silverthorne with complete respect and total disregard.

"I can die in a moment, a crossing of borders. Death unpins and locks, time is measured and marked. For the living, personal considerations explode and drift to every feeling, while public regulations constrict and sentimentalise this unique and ordinary change. My parents died when I was young and in large part, I went to the morgue looking for them. I did find them, many years later, in my heart."

The series Morgue is now available in a new special edition book including a signed 8x10 silver print, priced £250, or for £30 without the print. Available via Stanley/Barker.

A hearse with its rear door open is positioned in front of a brick building, with two men in dark suits standing beside it in this black and white photograph
Black and white photograph of a deceased person with surgical stitching down the centre of their torso, shot in profile against a tiled wall from Jeffrey Silverthorne's Morgue series
Black and white photograph of a deceased person's face wrapped in white cloth, from Jeffrey Silverthorne's Morgue series documenting deaths in 1970s America
Black and white photograph of a deceased man's face in repose, eyes closed, from Jeffrey Silverthorne's Morgue series documenting deaths in 1970s America
Black and white photograph of a child's swollen foot and lower leg, part of Jeffrey Silverthorne's Morgue series documenting bodies in a 1970s state morgue
Black and white photograph of a deceased person's head resting in a metal tray during a morgue examination, with a person standing behind on a checkered floor
Black and white photograph of a young child's face with tousled dark hair and closed eyes, taken from above
Black and white photograph of a pale hand resting on draped fabric in Jeffrey Silverthorne's Morgue series
Two bodies wrapped in cloth lying on metal autopsy tables in a tiled morgue, photographed in black and white by Jeffrey Silverthorne
Black and white photograph of men examining a car at a scrapyard or junkyard with brick buildings and utility poles in the background
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