Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Train Tragedy

I think this woman's daughter got hit by a train.

Or maybe it was this boy's girlfriend. I don't know. Either way, four kids were crossing a train bridge over the Nueces River when they heard the engine coming. Two of them ran back south the way they came. Two ran north to the other side. The two that ran north weren't going to make it. One jumped off the bridge into the water. The other, a teenage girl, was hit by the train. Her body was later recovered from the river.

There was some questions in the newsroom on how we should run the grieving photos, or if they should run at all. The people refused to be identified and no one on the scene would confirm if they were the family of the deceased. But the photos were compelling. Couple that with a slow news day and you can justify just about anything.

It was an uneasy scene, to say the least. I felt terrible every time I lifted my camera. Occasionally they would look back at me through my long glass and glare in disgust before turning and weeping some more. Just don't put your camera down, I thought. I was afraid there would be issues when I got back to the newsroom, but I couldn't worry about that. Shoot it all, sort it out later, I kept thinking. So I kept shooting.





5 comments:

Ken said...

Sorry for you and them.
I used to be more sure of the "right thing" to do in these situations. Either way you leave these scenes with doubts and second thoughts.
Good luck to you.

Z-Man said...

I think you did the right thing. I don't think you took advantage of the subjects and how can you not shoot that kind of emotion.
It is hard to keep doing what we do when the world is falling apart around us, but we do have a job to do.
It may sound harsh but you did your job and from working with you for a few years I am sure you did your job as discreetly as possible. I don't mean you hid and snuck around but somehow you have a "small" presence when you shoot, you kinda blend-in and disappear.
Nice work.

Mark M. Hancock said...

Others can learn from this grief. Lives can be saved because of these painful images. Parents will talk to their children.
It's hard to make these images. It's harder to not make the images and face the same situation each day and know you could have prevented a repeat.

Neemah said...

so how did it end up running?

Michael said...

The second photo ran lead and the last photo ran secondary on the front page. Both were below the fold.