People in olden times were apparently less fearful and grievous of death than we are

today. To some it was even an honor to be chosen by the gods as a sacrificial victim, a

liberation from the sufferings and strife of this life.


I went to London in 1994, and visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. There I saw the

blade that guillotined Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the electric chair that executed

the Lindberg baby’s kidnapper, among other exhibits―all very real. To corroborate these

various murderous instruments invented by civilized men, I took the requisite eye-witness

photographs: thus did people in times past face death head on.

Several years later when in visited again, the Chamber of Horrors exhibits were gone.

When I asked why, I was told they'd been removed in a gesture to political correctness.

Must we moderns be so sheltered from death?

- Hiroshi Sugimoto