Tragic images

What is it about human carnage and tragedy that makes us stop and stare? As a young girl, I was interested in stories about the Titanic or the Civil War. I like reading about history, but even current "history" is absorbing. I don't mean that I find tragedies fascinating because I'm a sociopath. I find tragedies fascinating because there is a morbidity that calls to me, however strange that sounds. I think people are interested in tragedies because we are all human and we would like to know how death works.

The Poynter Online website has an article about a site that features journalistic and photo designs regarding the Minneapolis bridge collapse disaster that happened last August. The website is called "13 seconds in August", and it is a beloved work in progress.

This website from the Star Tribune is filled with testimonials, images, and sounds from that day in August 2007. One is able to scroll all the way down an aerial picture of the collapsed bridge, from car to car. Particularly sad are the numeral labels of cars in the Mississippi; some of these labels represent lives that were lost. Their biographies are also on the site.

In my opinion, there should be some sensitivity when publishing certain images. One must be careful that they have spoken with family and friends about the victim or injured person. In several cases, there must be consent given. On the other hand, tragic images often speak to us in a way that words cannot. Sometimes images reach beyond words to tell a story.