Joe Silverstein (born March 4th, 1970) was hired by Dead as Death Inc. as a supervising agent of demise on June 14th, 1979. As a teenager, Joe had lost his life in an unfortunate occurrence in which his licking of an electric pole during a thunderstorm in his hometown of Cranford, NJ resulted in his immediate electrocution and hence death. As such a sin was not catalogued under the Code of Demise, Frank Mishvoekenstein (otherwise known as God) sent him for training at the prestigious School of Death, Slaughter and Other Furry Things owing to the extraordinary circumstances in which he was killed.
Joe graduated later that year only to be hired directly off campus by Dead as Death Inc., at the time the most profitable agency of death in all of New Jersey. His tenure was extremely successful and he received Employee of the Month six times during his stay. In the economic crash of the later 2000s, Dead as Death Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Joe Silverstein was left unemployed. As the global financial crisis continued, Joe was left without work for months on end. Most agents of death were decommissioned and transferred to other fields such as accounting or elves for Santa Claus. Joe Silverstein, however, was persistent and concocted a marvelous plan to help rectify the situation. Joe illegally entered Earth’s realm on September 19th, 2009 and conducted his own survey of the current situation. Due to his attire, he was not permitted to speak with any corporate executives. He heard that he could attribute this to racism as he was, after all, pitch black. Having failed, Joe attempted to rejoin his into true belongings but unfortunately his license to reap had been revoked by the state. Joe was in an unusual situation, in the realm of Earth without a license to reap or any viable health insurance.
This photographic series is a documentation of Joe’s time spent during his years on Earth as he explored the oddities of a life he never had the chance to experience.