The above photograph is of KISS bass player Gene Simmons.
This might seem a tad strange, considering the post you’re reading has, literally, nothing to do with Simmons, KISS or, even, music.
The reason you’re looking at Simmons is because, in the name of decency and good taste, I refuse to run the photograph I’m writing about; the photograph that appeared on the front page of today’s New York Post (that’s the link, if you truly feel compelled). In case you missed it, it was a frightening, heartbreaking image of a 58-year-old man, Ki Suk Han, desperately trying to climb off of a subway track as the train approaches. Han had been pushed there by a crazy man and, ultimately, he was struck and killed.
A Post freelance photographer happened to be waiting for the train, and said he fired off his camera so that the flash might get the attention of the operator. Tragically, it did not.
I am, once again, disgusted by the Post.
There are, quite often, times and places for gripping, graphic, awful photographs. Scenes from the aftermath of a deadly storm; scenes from war. This picture, taken during the Vietnam war, is a perfect example, in that it documents a precise scene during an important time; it educates the reader that what’s really going on.
The train photo, however, is a train photo. There’s nothing to be learned, or grasped, or understood. There’s no benefit, save for the selling of myriad copies of a decaying newspaper. It’s unfair to the man’s family; unfair to the kids who will happen upon it.
I’m disgusted. So, I’m guessing, is Gene.
