Contact Sheet 156: Unmarked

by Stephen Chalmers

This catalogue features the work of photographer Stephen Chalmers. The images in Unmarked create a lasting link between life-and-death events and the land. By inviting us to gaze directly on the sites of untimely and tragic deaths, Chalmers gives us courage to confront our fears about the end of life and its remembrance. In Unmarked, Chalmers, who is a trained social worker, former emergency medical technician, and professor, photographs so called dumpsites, places where the bodies of victims of serial killers were abandoned. These sites remain largely unmarked by any kind of memorial, unlike the sites of automobile accidents, which are frequently adorned with elaborate roadside memorials. Acknowledging these dumpsites and the people who died there through his images, Chalmers lifts a stigma that unceremoniously draws a line of remembrance between those who died by intentional acts of violence and those who did not. While Chalmers treads on sensitive ground as he explores and documents dumpsites in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, he hopes to exchange sensational headlines and the inevitable scandal tied to such sites with something more meaningful. Instead, he offers an elegant memorial that shifts our gaze away from infamy and back to the humanity of the victims.

48 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2010