Sunday, September 25, 2011

            The above picture was taken seconds after a serious crash of Sauber F1 Team driver Sergio Perez during the recent Monaco F1 Grand Prix. At the time the picture was taken, nobody knew if the Mexican driver would even survive; he wasn't moving inside his car or responding to his race engineer over the radio, asking him if he was alright.
            The photographer took this image, however, with several things in mind. The most evident is how grayscale the image is, with the asphalt, shadows, rails, and even the buildings to the right all some shade of gray. The only thing standing out is the craine and the crushed safety barrier in the middle of the image that automatically attract the viewer's eye to that specific point. The car is clearly severely damaged, but the way the image was taken, it is hard to see exactly how bad or if the driver is OK or not, which mirrors exactly what was going on in any spectators' minds. Another thing the photographer decided to include in the image--having to zoom out a bit and sacrifice clearer detail--were the skid marks at the bottom right of the image. These not only show that the car crashed into the barrier while going in a straight line, but also that it was going blindingly fast. Looking at the image, anyone that hasn't even seen the footage of the crash can imagine how terrifying it really was and how severe, immediately sparking sympathy in hearts of anyone, not just Sergio's fans.

2 comments:

  1. Denis--fine image. Do you believe that this is also a wake-up call, an attempt to dissuade others from this type of racing?

    Mr. Heller

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  2. Actually, I believe it was made to persuade the organizers of future Grand Prix to take much more careful measures and design safer crash zones at high-speed corners to increase safety for all drivers. This was a serious crash, but the driver spent only two days at the local hospital with a concussion and returned to racing on the next Grand Prix, two weeks later. An image with the purpose of dissuasion would have been one of a fatality or a much more serious crash.

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