A couple of weeks ago, I saw a dead body for the first time outside of a mortuary. Yesterday there was a fatal gang shooting across the street from the studio…which also sadly ended in death.
I had my DSLR with me, and went up to the roof and took a grip load of pictures. Capturing the guy bleeding on the sidewalk, the police and paramedics, the ambulances, the crowds, the scene. At the time, it was OK for me to be so seemingly callous, because he wasn’t dead. He was definitely in a bad way, his friend was standing over him covered in his blood, but they loaded him into an ambulance instead of covering him with a sheet and leaving him on the street to cool.
Today though, it turns out he didn’t make it. And that changes the picture taking. Being right across the street I was the first person in the area with any kind of significant camera. By the time the press got there, the victim was already on the way to the hospital. So, without exaggeration, I may have the last pictures of this guy alive.
Weird.