Death By Chocolate is a participatory project proposed by Waterloo photographers Andrew Wright and Stefan A. Rose, whereby participants stage their own deaths using chocolate syrup provided by the local Dairy Queen.  Using the Dairy Queen and its adjacent parking lot located a stone’s throw from their respective homes, Andrew and Stefan will provide Dairy Queen patrons the opportunity to don a white t-shirt, douse themselves in chocolate syrup, and…die for the camera.  This will provide an opportunity for participants to not only observe and interact with two professional photographers at work — to see the contrast of one using digital photographic cameras and the other using antique view cameras — but  also for them to help create and direct the end result of this photographic foray: the images become the manifestations of individual imaginations.  These images will then be displayed on a dedicated website where subjects can view their Hollywood-like staging. 

    Chocolate syrup was an effective surrogate for blood in black & white films, most notably in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and both colour and black & white media will be used here as well to emphasize drama and the suspension of disbelief. 

    American photographer Arthur Fellig, known popularly as ‘Weegee’, was both a crime scene photographer and keen observer of people and groups.  Death By Chocolate is in some ways an homage to, and a combination of, these two practices…made sweet and tasty!  The Dairy Queen on King Street, Kitchener-Waterloo’s main thoroughfare, is popular and busy until 11pm on any given summer evening. Further, this is one of the few Dairy Queens that sits amidst a residential neighbourhood—most patrons arrive on foot.

    Parents and children alike can get messy and creative in this rare instance of Halloween in June!