FatalFrame is a project which uses real combat footage of snipers from recent conflicts around the world sourced from online databases. The images are screen captures of the very moment the bullet leaves the sniper and heads towards its target before killing them. The work acts as commentary on how the internet has changed our relationship with war and death. With footage such as this so easily and widely available has our perception of the topic become misconstrued? Does the ease of access inform us better of what is happening around the world or do we become so familiar with viciousness that it is normalised? 

 

Not only is this a questioning of our physiological relationship with visual media but also the relationship between the sniper and their target. When that shot wrings out, what do you think? Do you have time to think? Unable to move, unaware of where you are struck from, what goes through your mind as the inevitable moment is to come? A mere few seconds to question everything or seek peace with yourself. This sort of imbalance between the sniper and its target alludes to the cruelness of war, we see this even more with the employment of drones used in modern combat. 

 

The work itself is framed physically within a Baroque/Renaissance style picture frame with intricate forms and rich colours such as gold and red. Originally only affordable by the wealthy and powerful, those who back war. This presentation adds a sort of glamourisation to the work which can be seen similarly with movies, recruitment media and video games that can so often romanticize horror. 

 In addition to this, these frames are often tied to biblical or historical events involving death. The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 by John Singleton Copley, 1783. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by John Martin, 1852 and the plethora of depictions of the crucifixion of Christ. Many of such paintings depict chaos and war in a highly dramatised sense, perhaps to extract emotion, establish narratives of good vs evil or simply for entertainment purposes.

 

The project title is in reference to the Japanese survival horror game series which involves combating supernatural entities with a camera obscura in tangent with its literal meaning of being the fatal frame of target in the footage. The choice of the name stems from use of the camera obscura as a means of a defensive weapon, in similar vein to that of  the scope of the sniper or the camera of a photojournalist.  In all cases death is witnessed through an optic.

 

This project hopes to open a conversation and create a dialogue surrounding our relationship with this modern era of visual media and how it may impact our perception of war and death.