Enrique Metinides
Untitled (Empleado de Telefonos de Mexico electrocutado en el km. 13 de la carretera Mexico-Toluca), 1971
This is a picture of one of so many poor people who, to this day, continue to steal electricity in Mexico City. They connect a cable to their home and then climb up the post to hook into the system, but they often get electrocuted.
Secuencia rescate de un suicide en la cúpula el toreo (Suicide rescue from the top of the Toreo Stadium) 1971
A High Voltage Cable Snaps Loose and Hits a Man Walking Along Tacaba Street. Despite Being Badly Electrocuted, He Survived, 1958
This lady went to Chapultepec, Mexico City’s biggest park, and asked which was the oldest tree. She went to the tree, pulled a rope out of her purse, and hanged herself. When they took the body down from the tree, they found a photograph of her daughter in her purse with a note that read: “My husband left me and took my daughter when she was nine years old, and today, when she turns 15 and I still haven’t seen her, I can no longer take the pain and I’m taking away my own life.”
It discusses what I believe to be the most completely perfect photograph of “urban mayhem” ever shot: The pretty blond woman who is killed in a car accident, and as The New Yorker noted, “doesn’t seem to know she’s dead.”
