Health

Julian Kingma was afraid of dying.

In this regard, perhaps the award-winning portrait photographer is not much different from the rest of us. But Kingma’s obsession with mortality had stalked him since childhood – and spilled over into adulthood.

Sometimes, in his work, he would be sent out on end-of-life stories, documenting terminally ill people. He was fascinated by people who wanted to end their lives, long before Victoria became the first Australian state to introduce voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation in 2017.

In 2021, he listened to Better Off Dead, a podcast by Andrew Denton, founder of the assisted dying charity Go Gentle. Denton was telling the stories of some of the first people to access the landmark Victorian laws.

For Kingma, it was a lightbulb moment. Hearing the stories was one thing – putting faces to them was another. He rang Go Gentle. The collaboration that followed, a book-length photo essay called The Power Of Choice, was life-changing.

Kingma travelled the country for more than a year, sitting, staying with and capturing people who had accessed assisted dying, along with their doctors, carers and families. The experience challenged him to look death in the eye – and helped alleviate some of his own anxiety.… Read more..