Marie de Hennezel spoke of this denial of death. The least of dignities also required this quasi-neutralization of the image.
In Italy, the chapels of rest set up in the north of the country will nevertheless remain etched in memories. Fixed shots of coffins in numbers. Chilling. Certainly, the circumstances of a region overwhelmed by the influx of sick people caused this, and therefore these sequences. But the mass death was filmed, shown.
Likewise in New York, also overwhelmed by the pandemic. There, it was refrigerated trucks and mass graves that left their mark. In particular, the images taken by photographer George Steinmetz and his twitter data drone last April. The fact that he was able to report on the burial by prisoners of dozens of bodies unclaimed by families on Hart Island earned him the seizure of his equipment by the authorities.
The representation of death has become a political issue, also variable according to the cultural traditions of the countries concerned. The same was already true for terrorism. Between the Spain of Atocha in 2004 and its bloodied wandering victims, to the almost invisible deaths of the World Trade in 2001. At the time, on this point, a controversy called into question the media.
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis says the tragic reality of hospitals has been largely overlooked. While reporters have done a great job, she says, the president, health care workers, and illustrations of economic distress have largely taken up the screens.