No Seconds vs The Last Meal Project

I found both of the two presentations to be visually compelling and intriguing. In my opinion there is no comparing the two, where one website falls short another website picks up the slack. The goal of ‘No Seconds’ presentation was almost to mock the American tradition of offering the most notorious group of people in society a last meal before execution. Throughout the project the photographer provides us with detailed information regarding the alleged crimes committed. Also, the photographs are more visually appealing than the ones found in ‘The Last Meal Project‘. Additionally, the photographer includes the age of the person, which is not available in the information provided by ‘The Last Meal Project’. The images and text provided seems to provide an equal focus of the actual person and the food in which they requested. In ‘No Seconds’ the abundance of information in the accuracy of the alleged crime committed helps the audience to assume the photographers point ‘why do they deserve a last meal?’ The photo that speaks the most volume is the Angel Nieves Diaz, the inmate who requested no last meal. This photo was depicted by a an empty plate, place settings, and a empty cup. This image was the most important because it symbolizes one of two things about the person: he was feeling guilty and felt he did not deserve a last meal before his execution, or he was in a hurry to complete the process.

In ‘The Last Meal Project’ the goal of this presentation is more informational and as stated in the first slide “to question how is society really served by the death penalty?“. In this presentation there is a more accurate description of the food provided, numerically, although the meals aren’t in a visually appealing design. This leaves the audience with a ‘cut and dry’ image of what is taking place, there is a sense of honesty with no sugar coating taking place. This photographer also included a photo of the person on death row behind the images of the food requested. This speaks the most volume to letting the audience determine what could have potentially been the cause or reasoning for them desiring the meal in which they did. Additionally the presentation includes information regarding the costs of being on death row and being executed, and the process of what lethal injections consists of. Also this presentation the includes the date and time in which the inmate was executed.

Both photographers used the font ‘Courier New’ to present the information on each inmate. Unfortunately this seems to be the one font all persons use in describing the death penalty, however, this may derive from this being the original font provided on typewriters. In both presentations I was moved by the information provided but more affected by ‘The Last Meal Project’ because it included the faces of the inmate.