The Falling Man was an awakening essay about one man capturing a moment it time visibly upsetting to everyone involved. There were many details about his essay that stood out to me. First being the obvious details shown in the actual image. The image beautiful with is composition of lines, but also devastating with the reality of the action taken by the man in the photo. Another part in the essay that stood out to me was that of the statistics of how many people had jumped from the World Trade Center
A common pattern in the essay was that of the feeling of people on the photo itself. There we countless amount of people objecting to the image be shown to the public and also being taken in the first place. Another pattern along the same lines of the first is the people trying to confirm or deny who the man was in the photo. Most of the people were trying to identify if the man was their loved one, however they were not looking to prove it was him, but rather that their loved one was not one of the jumpers. An item that had been repeated was the orange shirt as well as the white jacket. Both of these items were off great importance of to who this man could have been. Mostly the white jacket was an indicator that this could have been someone working in the restaurant or someone working for a catering company. Another part within the essay that had similar characteristics was the artwork by Eric Fischl and the photography by Richard Drew. They were both trying to capture the emotions of everyone. But yet they were both hated by most who thought their art was prying into peoples personal feelings about the tragic day.
Some things that seemed strange to me was the one woman who had called trying to see if the man in the photo was one of her sons. She seemed to be the only one who wanted to look at the photo and help put a name to it. Something else that seemed out of place was the way the photographer’s day had started. He began his day in a rather calm situation, at a maternity shoot. This shoot filled with love and happiness and most of all soon to be new life. Then transitioning to a time of horror and tragedy, in taking photos of a man soon to be death, the last ten seconds of this mans life.
A common pattern in the essay was that of the feeling of people on the photo itself. There we countless amount of people objecting to the image be shown to the public and also being taken in the first place. Another pattern along the same lines of the first is the people trying to confirm or deny who the man was in the photo. Most of the people were trying to identify if the man was their loved one, however they were not looking to prove it was him, but rather that their loved one was not one of the jumpers. An item that had been repeated was the orange shirt as well as the white jacket. Both of these items were off great importance of to who this man could have been. Mostly the white jacket was an indicator that this could have been someone working in the restaurant or someone working for a catering company. Another part within the essay that had similar characteristics was the artwork by Eric Fischl and the photography by Richard Drew. They were both trying to capture the emotions of everyone. But yet they were both hated by most who thought their art was prying into peoples personal feelings about the tragic day.
Some things that seemed strange to me was the one woman who had called trying to see if the man in the photo was one of her sons. She seemed to be the only one who wanted to look at the photo and help put a name to it. Something else that seemed out of place was the way the photographer’s day had started. He began his day in a rather calm situation, at a maternity shoot. This shoot filled with love and happiness and most of all soon to be new life. Then transitioning to a time of horror and tragedy, in taking photos of a man soon to be death, the last ten seconds of this mans life.
Hi Jena - first of all, your observation about the numbers is striking -- not just because the numbers are so different, but also because Junod seems so concerned with numbers, with the facts. We know at precisely what time the photograph was taken, how fast the man was falling, how many Windows on the World employees died, how many floors the building had, and Junod is certain to detail the debate about how many people actually jumped. One question could be, why is Junod so concerned with these numbers, especially the debate over the number of jumpers? Why is that important? Is it a way of verifying his story, or of branding it as accurate, true, well-researched, etc.?
ReplyDeleteThe comparison between Drew and Fischl is really smart. These are definitely two figures that Junod portrays as searching for truth and never turning away from the jumping people. As you point out, they both pay for their attention and they generate hatred in the public response.
In your last paragraph, are you talking about the woman in Connecticut mentioned on page 77? I believe the reporter calls her; I don't think she is the one calling. However, it's true she is one of the few people open to looking at the photo to see if she can identify her loved one. This might be due to religious differences, since the Hernandez family likely feels that "suicide" is a sin. Amazing observation with the photo shoot starting with "new life" and then his day of photography turns to capturing death. I wonder how/if you could incorporate that into your developing interpretation of "The Falling Man."