On a recent trip aboard the USS Potomac, I got the story about the above vessel. It's a light ship, which the keen eyes of those more experienced than I in matters naval will no doubt recognize. It is one of three Bay Area Coast Guard ships used to maintain virtual lighthouses at places where fixed, traditional lighthouses are needed but do not exist. An excellent history of these vessels can be found here. Two locations had dedicated ship which occasionally needed to come in from their stationary duty to be serviced. When one came in, this one, Relief, went out to relieve the ship being serviced, hence the large RELIEF on its hull.Heading out
We are leaving tomorrow morning for ten days in Rome and Sicily, but before we go I wanted to pose a moral question to you, and especially to the photographers out there. Driving home from some last minute errands just now, I came around a bend at the Maze and found that a two car crash had just happened. And I mean the cars were still rocking back and forth from their sudden halts. Everyone else braked hard and slowed, several in front of me pulling over to lend assistance if needed. As I approached I saw several people getting out of their cars with cell phones and decided that help would be summoned and that more people on the scene would just be in the way. No one appeared to be hurt, though they were all understandably rattled.
One car, with four passengers, had spun around and was facing traffic, while the other appeared to have crashed into it during its spin. I couldn’t tell what had caused the accident or even exactly what had happened. But it was yet another solemn reminder of how fragile we are, hurtling down the freeway at 70 mph, and what an illusion is our sense of security as we speed along.
I had my camera with me, sitting on the passenger seat, ready for any excuse to take a picture. As I slowly passed the accident, having decided that my help was not needed, I reached for the camera. But seeing the faces of the people involved, I felt in that moment that the people were so vulnerable from the accident that it didn’t seem proper to photograph them. The solo driver was on her cell phone and nearly in tears as she looked out the window and almost directly at me. I think that would have made a fairly dramatic photograph if I had pulled it off. And in a way I regret not trying. But at the time, it just didn’t seem right to do so.
When I think of some of the most amazing pictures I’ve seen, many of them have been taken in moments of stress, conflict, violence—moments when the subjects were very vulnerable, in other words. It may be that very vulnerability that makes those pictures so remarkable. If the photographers had paused to consider moral dilemmas, we wouldn’t have those photographs at all.
What do you think? Not counting the fact that I was driving at the time, albeit going very slowly, would it have been inappropriate to photograph people in that situation?
I look forward to hearing what you have to say about this when I get back. I hope to have some good photographs of Rome and Sicily, too.
