The photographs, collected under the title 'Last Words', featured models posing as female writers including Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf and Iris Chang in recreations of their suicide attempts. The photos were accompanied by details of the clothes the models were wearing, such as the type of stocking being used in a hanging attempt.
Appearing in the latest issue with full editorial discussing the reasoning behind the shoot, the photos attracted wider attention after an edited version of the article appeared on Vice's website. The photos were republished by feminist blog Jezebel (link contains images some might find disturbing), with the text strongly criticising the Vice feature.
Vice have since removed the photographs from the website, replacing it with a statement reading "ӬӬthe fashion spreads in VICE magazine are always unconventional and approached with an art-editorial point-of-view rather than a typical fashion photo-editorial one.
"”¨”¨“Last Words” was created in this tradition and focused on the demise of a set of writers whose lives we very much wish weren’t cut tragically short, especially at their own hands. We will no longer display “Last Words” on our website and apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended."
The shoot has attracted widespread condemnation, with many writers fearing it could be seen as glamorising suicide. Sarah Nardi argues "beneath every photo, VICE lists the fashion credits... VICE's decision to run these photos as a fashion spread is indefensible. But the images themselves, removed from the context in which they were situated, are powerful."
In the Guardian, Helen Lewis writes "as a journalist, covering suicide is always hard because there is a fine line between raising awareness of a vital public health issue and contributing to a spectacle that could harm vulnerable people... it is easy to find things to be outraged about these days. But this one is worth being angered by, because tonight, there might be one less Vice reader in the world."
