Car crash picture - is this staged or not?

[polleke]

My sincere apologies to those whom I have shocked with this image before I added the warning.

Thanks to the others who came up with the name of the photographer, and some background information.

Now, some might think I am one of those people who slow down the car just to be able to catch a glimpse of a crash site, but no, I'm not. (As a matter of fact, I dislike that behaviour!)

That said, I cannot put into words why exactly it is that I recognize a certain kind of beauty in this image.

I guess Edgar Allan Poe was right...

 

[jja]

I'm like you, I hate rubbernecking and I would never take these kinds of photos, but I think Metinides's photos are really provocative.

 

[eric]

As far as I know, the photo is not staged. It is by Enrique Metinides, a Mexican photographer whose work has been compared to Weegee. Here's a link you may find informative:

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/feature/0,,1048129,00.html

Beat me to it!
Its quite a disturbing but a famous photo. She was a famous movie star.

 

[yanidel]

My sincere apologies to those whom I have shocked with this image before I added the warning.

Thanks to the others who came up with the name of the photographer, and some background information.

Now, some might think I am one of those people who slow down the car just to be able to catch a glimpse of a crash site, but no, I'm not. (As a matter of fact, I dislike that behaviour!)

That said, I cannot put into words why exactly it is that I recognize a certain kind of beauty in this image.

I guess Edgar Allan Poe was right...

There is indeed some beauty in this image, I agree with you. And why should death not be pictured ? I have seen several picture on this site of blind people, homeless or third word country children. There is suffering in all of these people life though we often find it a good picture subject, does it prevent some of us to take them ? Of course, gore is not a style I subscribe too but this picture with the mexican actress is not about that, it does tell a story and is of some beauty.

 

[bob338]

There is indeed some beauty in this image, I agree with you. And why should death not be pictured ? I have seen several picture on this site of blind people, homeless or third word country children. There is suffering in all of these people life though we often find it a good picture subject, does it prevent some of us to take them ? Of course, gore is not a style I subscribe too but this picture with the mexican actress is not about that, it does tell a story and is of some beauty.

it's fine to take pictures of death, but if you're going to link to a photo that is somewhat gruesome, there should be a warning.

 

[yanidel]

I found the title pretty explicit : Car crash site. I did not expect to see flowers when I decided to read the posts. 🙂

 

[williams473]

Certainly no less graphic than a lot of other "death" images famous photographers have taken. To compare consider the famous Sullivan image of a dead Confederate sniper from the American Civil War: (warning - if you don't want to see a dead body don't click on the link)

http://www.archives.gov/research/civil-war/photos/images/civil-war-098.jpg

The image of the Mexican actress has the same sobering, unsettling quality to it. Both images could be taken out of context (i.e. the fact that's she's was an actress and he was a soldier don't matter to the meaning of the image) and still posess a beauty to them. In both, I feel particularly sad at the loss BECAUSE I can see the person so clearly - their face and experession in which life is clearly gone, and the knowledge that they died before old age strikes me as tragic. As in all early death, it is the loss of potential and possibility that is so sad.

I agree with Bill that I would not want my family members pictured in death for the public. But if I were photographing in a war, wouldn't it almost be impossible not to picture people's faces? I've never had to decide that ethical issue for my own photography thankfully- I tend to think I would not picture a person's face in death - however in both the Mexican image and Sullivan's piece - it adds to the power of the image. Obviously both images were made by sensitive individuals.

 

[bob338]

I found the title pretty explicit : Car crash site. I did not expect to see flowers when I decided to read the posts. 🙂

here is a car crash that isn't gruesome.

 

[yanidel]

and sell your TV sets ...

 

[krishilife]

Hi,

I speak Polish, and the context doesn't say directly if the picture is staged, or not. However, after reading it I have an opinion that they are real. The context says that the author of this website always gravitates to the drastic scenes, but not to atrocities. He was interested in esthetic death and suffer on the pictures, like on Weegee i Metinidesa's pics.
Then he says "These are beautiful, yet shocking images". Below he also says "Yesterday, at my window car crash took a place. Two cars have turned-over, and one of them burst into flames. I looked a for a second, and turned my sight away. I couldn't watch something I could relish in Metinidesa's frames for many minutes."

(I'm sorry if the translation wasn't precisely accurate.)

 

[WoolenMammoth]

gosh, there are some fritghtfully ninny people on this board, this website has a really odd cross section of people participating in it.

I could have done without seeing that photo, Ive seen enough real dead people to last a lifetime. However, thats one of the more amazing photos I have ever seen. I think any photo that inspires people to inquire wether it is staged or not says alot. There are millions of pictures of dead people, what percentage of those really inspire that kind of reaction? Thats a really incredible photograph.

I live in a major metropolitian area and mostly work in big cities and sadly get to see scenes like that every few years. Ive never been presented with a situation like that where I could have created a photograph like that. Serious master pj at work there.

It is truly bizarre to me that the content of a photograph would ever overpower another photographers appreciation of a powerful image. Goes to show you how many different avenues people go down with expectations from this craft.

I guess we are all impressed with what we are impressed with, but its a sad note to consider the legacy of henri huet and others who died for their craft to show the world the horror only to have that legacy lost on those that cant see a masterpiece when it unsettles their vanilla world.

 

[Avotius]

Quite bad but not the worse I have seen. Once I was in Aba, part of Sichuan China, a guy was wandering across the street and one of those blue heavy duty utility haulers you see all around here plowed him right over and his arm flew up in the air landing many meters away. That was disturbing. In fact I can think of a half dozen other situations I can honestly call disturbing. We live in disturbing times we do, and plus many of the photographers we idolize have taken these type of images in some form or fashion.