Philip Braham
SUICIDE NOTES

The circumstance of our death is rarely chosen. Life is that great external driving force that keeps us going until death inadvertently overtakes us along the way. The only group for which this is not the case are those intent on taking their own lives, and they alone choose when, where and how that will be done. The incidence of suicide in Scotland is amongst the highest in Europe, and is almost double that of the UK average. The Scottish Government is acutely aware of the statistics, and through the agency Choose Life issue guidelines to restrict the reporting of suicide cases. In June last year I began to document the sites of suicides which were reported in the press, having been profoundly moved by the case of Irene Hogg, a headmistress who took her life following a critical report by the school inspectorate. The conscious decision to takes one’s life in the open, before nature, represents a private farewell to the world and a stark acknowledgment that we are utterly alone in death if not in life. Perhaps there is some solace gained in the sacrificial act that living-on would deny: a definitive end in sight. The landscapes here represent the last scenes in the final act of lives too broken to continue. They stand as modest monuments to the subjects absent in this series of photographs.

Fallen Tree, Nature reserve near Ashkirk	Divergent Path, Hownam	Folly on Kinnoull Hill, Perth	Woodland at Kinnoull, Perth
Footbridge, Barry Buddon	Disused Quarry on Balmashanner Hill, Forfar	Dark Water, Tayport	Forest Entrance, Bridge of Orchy
Lockage on Neptune's Ladder, Bannavie	Copse on Gallow Hill, Tealing	Tidal Swell, Monifieth	Twisted Trees, Arbirlot
View Over Fauldhouse Moor, West Lothian	Low Tide at Port Edgar, Firth of Forth	Eroded Rocks at the Falls of Bruar, Perthshire	Flow on the River Lossie, Elgin

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