Lomography

A woman jumps to her death from the Empire State Building in 1947 and her body lands on top of a United Nations limousine. A photographer named Robert Wiles was there and took a photo of her dead body and the photograph quickly became known as "The Most Beautiful Suicide".

What is beauty? This is a question we photographers (and humans) question constantly. The definition of word beauty is “a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, esp. the sight.” And/or “a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense”.

Photo by aalper

The tricky thing about beauty is that it can be anything. Art is a great conveyer (and perhaps the only) of beauty. Paintings, music, words can capture beauty. Film can capture beauty as well. But you know this already. This is a blog on Lomography.com, after all.

Beauty isn’t always pretty. In fact, beauty can be ugly. It can be found in sadness, darkness, death and even suicide. There have been great pieces of art that used suicide. If you don’t think so, read Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot”. I think you’ll see what I mean. But can photography capture beauty in a real suicide?

Suicide. I wonder about it. I’ve known people who’ve done it. I’ve thought about doing it myself. I don’t believe it to be sinful or selfish. I don’t even think it’s intrinsically sad. What if suicide was a relief to someone who decided to do it? I can’t say. However, as a photographer, I felt that making a genuine piece of art from a real death was exploitive, deplorable and impossible.

Until today.

Ask yourself: What is beauty? Then have a look at Robert Miles “The Most Beautiful Suicide”.

Like I said, beauty can be a tricky thing.