[Automobile Accident, San Francisco]

Unknown

1953 · Gelatin silver print with applied media · Photographs

Newspapers often relied on photo illustration to circumvent the limitations of photography as a method of reporting. It was easy enough for news photographers to cover scheduled events—state visits, political speeches and rallies—but sudden calamities often occurred when no cameras were present. In such cases, editors at the San Francisco Examiner would create a “photo-diagram”—a photograph of the crime or accident scene, usually taken after the fact, with a diagrammatic reconstruction of the event drawn onto the picture by hand. Here, arrows and numbered circles trace the careening path of a stolen car down a hilly street in San Francisco. Black crosses mark the spots where the halves of the victim’s body landed.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1953

Medium

Gelatin silver print with applied media

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2008