It has been a while since I've wanted to post this picture. The photograph was taken by I. Russel Sorgi, and it is known as "The Genesee Hotel Suicide" or "The Despondent Divorcee."
I did a little research on what happened in this picture, and i got two sources that say the following:
I did a little research on what happened in this picture, and i got two sources that say the following:
1) The Photo book by Phaindon.
"The woman who has just jumped from the eight-storey window ledge of the Genesee Hotel in Buffalo was a thirty-five-year-old divorceé. Sorgi, a news reporter with the Buffalo Courier Express, must've been tipped of that there was trouble at the hotel, although the judge from the body language of the other four participants, no-one expected quite this degree of melodrama. This picture of 1942 has forced its way into photography anthologies, partly because it it set in main street, which looks like a supervised, genial place. Up until around this time, picture-makers had assumed that humanity was at home in the kind of space offered by the gloomy interior of the coffee-shop. Thus the suicide's indifference to such comforting paraphernalia as it patriotic poster on the barber shop pole appear shocking a terrible reminder of real life, and affront to the optimistic image-building with which American documentary photography had been associated in the 1930s."
2) A blog called "Journal 43265 by Pyrcedgrrl".
"I snatched my camera from the car and took two quick shots as she seemed to hesitate...As quickly as possible I shoved the exposed film into the case and reached for a fresh holder. I no sooner had pulled the slide out and got set for another shot than she waved to the crowd below and pushed herself into space. Screams and shouts burst from the horrified onlookers as her body plummeted toward the street. I took a firm grip on myself, waited until the woman passed the second or third story, and then shot." Sorgi 1942
Its funny how one moment, one second has sufficient power to change your life. This is a glimpse of reality.
"The woman who has just jumped from the eight-storey window ledge of the Genesee Hotel in Buffalo was a thirty-five-year-old divorceé. Sorgi, a news reporter with the Buffalo Courier Express, must've been tipped of that there was trouble at the hotel, although the judge from the body language of the other four participants, no-one expected quite this degree of melodrama. This picture of 1942 has forced its way into photography anthologies, partly because it it set in main street, which looks like a supervised, genial place. Up until around this time, picture-makers had assumed that humanity was at home in the kind of space offered by the gloomy interior of the coffee-shop. Thus the suicide's indifference to such comforting paraphernalia as it patriotic poster on the barber shop pole appear shocking a terrible reminder of real life, and affront to the optimistic image-building with which American documentary photography had been associated in the 1930s."
2) A blog called "Journal 43265 by Pyrcedgrrl".
"I snatched my camera from the car and took two quick shots as she seemed to hesitate...As quickly as possible I shoved the exposed film into the case and reached for a fresh holder. I no sooner had pulled the slide out and got set for another shot than she waved to the crowd below and pushed herself into space. Screams and shouts burst from the horrified onlookers as her body plummeted toward the street. I took a firm grip on myself, waited until the woman passed the second or third story, and then shot." Sorgi 1942
Its funny how one moment, one second has sufficient power to change your life. This is a glimpse of reality.
