Beating by Michael Francis McElroy
Ft Lauderdale, Florida .This unidentified man was attacked and beaten by 2 youths in broad daylight. Teen violence is a serious and rapidly growing problem in America. From the horrible incident at Columbine, Colorado, to the everyday incidents of youth violence, it is apparent that the problem is growing not shrinking. There are, according to most studies, several possible contributing factors which lead young people to violent behavior. One problem facing children growing up in America is today’s media bombardment. Children growing up in today’s media are learning all the wrong things at all the wrong times.
(editors note: this is a straight un-posed photograph of an actual event as so described -david alan harvey)
Sorry, that response was for Joe and Bob… Ok I am done here now before I become a victim myself…
Thanks all
JARED…
i am laughing at the concept of you on your college magazine deadline, and then slipping over here to BURN….funny….well, send us a link to your magazine….one of the features i actually want to do here on BURN is a series on college photography….so , maybe we can work on that one together…obviously the future photographers are now in college, but are they really receiving any kind of preparation for what they will face when they graduate??? i think some art schools prepare their students very well for the gallery world, some do not…and same with the journalistic schools….sometimes i really wince when i wander into the academic world and hear and see what is being told to students…in any case, i want your opinions and the opinions of other university students…where are you in school??
hmmm, thinking more…maybe i should take some of the funding that comes to EPF and create a special grant just for university students…worldwide….yes, there is the College Photographer of the Year competition, but i am thinking of something a bit more broad..besides, university students can always use some funding for tuition, books, and just a little extra to get going on a project…anyway, just thinking out loud…your thoughts??
cheers, david
Holy shit! He’s doing well to still be upright. He is still upright, right?
JOE…
nice analogy…having photographed a few surgeries, i can tell you the conversation going on while actually saving someone’s life or watching someone die , had nothing to do with either….emotional involvement may or may not play a part with what is actually happening…
for me, there’s something exalted about it.
the agony and the ecstasy.
it’s in the splay of his fingers, his flung-open chest, the rise of his chin..
DAH
So Grey’s Anatomy is like real life??? LOL…
ALL,
yes i watch Grey’s anatomy because it IS not real life. and it is actually hilarious. too much sex in the damned TV series, not like in actual life where one i suppose would not even get home to have an hour of sleep.
and not all surgeons are there for fame and recognition and money… well, hmmm definitely big pluses but please no generalizations. and Ross i am sorry you had a bad experience but it is like calling all photographers “ALL for the money, calloused and insensitive WITH humongous egos”. generalizations are there because the big useless cynical crowd overshadows that one lone ranger…. hmmm. BURN is like the club for lone rangers i guess. all good points.. (ranting)
i am not a surgeon or a photographer.
but imagine this, opening up a 14 year old hit by a bullet to massage his heart to life… closing him up and watching him die right before your eyes… equal to the nightmare that i see each night, each time my memory conjures this damned picture a lot call beautiful…
i hurry and pinch and punch myself to wakefulness
:(((
happy pictures next? please?
… stray bullet… random gang shooting to prove another’s worth
hit while changing a diaper, watching 3 younger sibs
strange good things can come from photographing violence – i had a contact sheet used in court by a man who´s arm was broken during an arrest once..
still – the majority of violence i have seen has not been photographed simply because i was either breaking it up – as with a bottling in argentina, the focus of it – as with bottles being thrown at me in birmingham, or it would have been too inappropriate for whatever reason.
it´s a great photo regardless of opinions and it´s clear that michael does not practice the social porn of chasing suffering like an extreme sport.. that´s the only kind of work i do not like.
Joe wrote:
‘Someone should write a poem about how self-defeating it must feel to be a good photojournalist, it should say the closer you get to excellence, the more likely you are to be called a monster by many of your peers..”
Per your request Joe, I hope this will do … for now:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
GOD KNOWS I TRIED
I tried.
Cursed spit saturates my skin
strangely giving a wisp of air when it dries.
I tried
to make you see
your humanity
in the flies that feed on the dead baby’s eyes
in the red slick trickling down your brother’s cheeks
in the piece of heart you gave away reluctantly
sensitivity, this thing i used not to have
compassion that i champion
not enough
i am… strangely exalted in this tree
from which you hang me
in the drops of red slick on my shoe
and in your deep blue intoxicated eyes
i didn’t realize
(you thought)
the monster was me
Happy May Day everyone. So busy getting ready to leave on the road trip but I wanted to put in my two cents worth. Michael, I am totally captivated with this photo. It is an issue that is very close to my heart, teenage violence, due to my young grandchildren being in school and beginning to deal with bullies, etc. Here in Hawaii we have a lot of teenage violence, against each other and adults. It is a subject that needs to be on the front page. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and this wheel of violence the kids are spinning on must stop.
Aside from the message, the photo is astounding. The color, composition, even the black streak on the wall. It speaks volumes.
Excellent photo.
Lee
DAH
Glad I could make you chuckle. As I’m under 3 hours and still have 5 empty pages, I better get back to it…
I’ll definitely respond — just give me a few hours. :-)
I tried
to make you see
your humanity
i am… strangely exalted in this tree
from which you hang me
i didn’t realize
(you thought)
the monster was me
i like best those lines :-)
Bravo!
for you Joe,
and for the rest of you who think your pictures matter
and for us civilians
who feel the photographers matter more
Bravo, Gracie.
’nuff said.
Ugh. Just cannot get over the Christ-like silliness. So overdone. So unoriginal. I am very skeptical about it all. Sorry, can’t help it.
Why is he standing? Didn’t he just take a beating? It was remarked earlier that he was just barely hanging on to those bricks. Why isn’t he just sitting down? Did he pose himself this way? (as someone suggested) Did the photographer? Yes, I know he says he didn’t. He also says he never thought of the Christ bit until someone in here mentioned it. Yeah… OK.
There is no shortage of idealists in these pages. Unwilling to say a negative thing. Unwilling to question anything. But I am just constitutionally not able to look at a photograph like this and not think it put on. Am I too cynical? Maybe. But Panos is right, this would make a great Judas Priest or Ozzy Osborne album cover!
Uggh, Michael my friend. I can completely see and imagine how this picture would naturally come to be. But rather than debate this or that and all the wherewithal about what your first inclination is after you just got pounded, I’m just so … disappointed, surprised and saddened really by some of the reactions to … what just is … and frankly the relentless questioning of the integrity of those who go out there every damn day and work their ass off for next to nothing because they believe in what they do. How far it has all fallen.
Yeah… I hear you Tom. But please know that I don’t relentlessly question the integrity of photojournalists. Far from it. I respect them greatly and am in awe of many of them.
I wavered about whether to post my gut reaction to this photo… after my comment regarding Jukka Onnela’s essay, I knew this certainly would endear me to many in these pages. But it was my reaction. Can’t deny it. Probably should have kept it to myself.
…would NOT endear me…
“There is no shortage of idealists in these pages. Unwilling to say a negative thing. Unwilling to question anything.” I think it is called self protection among one’s own peers……….
“Ugh. Just cannot get over the Christ-like silliness. So overdone. So unoriginal.”……I am sure a fervent Christian could see the image as martyrdom of the common man…………the same overdone caper can be said for sunsets,speeding police cars, dark images with text, dead people, shot people , people who should be shot, people who want to be shot etc. ………. the list is endless.
Photographers should know better that once the image is placed into the public arena they cannot dictate what the audience makes of the image. But we do and become defensive from what we consider unwarranted attacks,thus a post image shit fight occurs.
ps Once the bricks get photo shopped out it will be a better album for the new Wee Willy and the Wet Boys album cover who do take their music seriously. Anyway I have half a bag of popcorn, a kilo of cocaine,three Russian blowup dolls and a B rated soft porn movie to get through……..please turn the light off
I welcome all comments good or bad! Burn gives us a forum to agree or disagree on the aesthetics of photography! we all see and capture our world with a personal vision. I do not take offense to any comments that suggest this was staged or composed intentionally to look Christ like, because i was there and know the truth in this photograph! I trust my instincts and wouldn’t do anything differently. I look forward to posting more photographs and projects in the future. Cheers, Michael
“because i was there and know the truth in this photograph!” Defensive authoritarian stuff like that doesn’t hack it with any audience all it does is alienate them. Better to let it go and let the image sort itself out …………..