The Last Journey

Where do we go when we die? Through the ages, artists, dreamers, philosophers and scientists have all tried to answer this question. Some people will tell you that we don’t go anywhere, that death is the end of the line. To others, death is a destination, a place you stay in forever. In the photograph “The Passing of Arthur”, Julia Margaret Cameroon expresses that perhaps death is not either, but instead a route to a new place. Using photo alterations, perspective, lighting, and choice of subjects, Cameroon illustrates that death is journey to a place unlike our own.

Through the use of photo alterations, the author reveals that death is leading us to very different world. The photo has been altered to have smoke at the bottom, which gives the feeling of dreaminess. It shows the author don’t know what will happen in the future, and that maybe something will happen that we cannot imagine. Not only that, Julia Margaret Cameroon leaves a trail of hints for the reader to surmise or imagine what the dreamy world will be like. One such example is that the moon is altered to look very different. Maybe this means that they are already entering a different place to start a new journey, therefore it, communicates that death is not destination, but route to a place we cannot imagine.

In the photo, Julia Margaret Cameroon uses the boat in the picture as a factor to help express her theme. In the photo, we can see the dying King Arthur in a boat, which is ferried by three men in black. With the king on his deathbed, and his body being transported to somewhere else, we can logically infer that he, through death, was being taken somewhere else. Since we can see that he was taken somewhere during the process of dying, we can infer that death takes us somewhere new, and it is the journey to that someplace new. This is an important factor to support the theme, because it expresses most of the theme by saying: death is a journey that takes us somewhere new.

Julia Cameroon makes use of the contrasts in the background of her photo to indicate that death is a very different place. In the picture, we can see three women, and the dying King Arthur. The background behind them is very dark. The darkness of this background most likely indicates the color of death, that is, King Arthur's way to death. However, the sides of the photo have light streaming through. From this light to dark transition, Cameroon express the process the journey from life to death. The background of black behind the death of Arthur and white around the edges gives the impression that they are leading to the unknown. Therefore, through contrasts in background we can understand that death is a journey.

In the photograph “The Passing of King Arthur”, Cameroon uses lights from various sides to show death is a way to somewhere else. However, the light seems like to be edited by Cameroon and middle has weaker light than other side. This is impossible to happen in real world because if two opposite sides have light, then the middle should also have it. Cameroon used this lighting to show us that they are passing into somewhere that is not their world. It is somewhere that they would go when they die. The lighting seems like it is shining them from top, to show that they have reached their destiny. Using lighting, she illustrates that death is a way to somewhere else.

In conclusion, Julia Margaret Cameroon uses photo alterations, perspective, lighting, and choice of subjects to communicate her theme that death is neither the end of everything, nor a destination, but it is a route and a journey to a place that we’ve never been to before. The importance of this theme is that it answers a theological question asked by people for as long as we can remember: What happens when we die? Well through the photograph, we can see that Cameroon tried to answer this question by saying death is a journey, and it takes us somewhere new. If this were to be widely believed, it would help settle many disputes over the topic of death, which shows us its importance.

-B. Lit. Group Six