The Burden of the Screen: Virtual presence and death during Covid-19

In the isolation of pandemic lockdowns, photography was a lifeline of connection, but for many families, it carried a greater burden. Separated at their darkest moments, relying on screens for connection as never before, loss became mediated suddenly by photography in a completely new way. There was no choice but to say goodbye to dying loved ones, isolated in care homes and hospital wards, through Zoom and Facetime, technologies created by digital media corporations and developed for the purposes of business conferencing and ‘chat’. What does it mean to say goodbye in this way? To share final words, final gazes and the last moments of a life – and then to undertake the work of mourning – through a screen? This chapter considers the ways in which the pandemic has taken established thought regarding not only death and photography, but also cyberspace and the digital image, and turned it on it head.