Yuh Never Know...

On any given day, whenever ya walk out the door, yuh never know... Yuh never know when that big, Mack truck of destiny is gonna smack ya upside the head and send ya down for the long count. Yuh just never know...

101 Tragedies of Enrique Metinides is the illustrated accounting of that fatally simplistic, but fatefully prophetic wisdom. Car accidents, train accidents, plane accidents, earthquakes, fires, and electrocutions to name but a few.  And perhaps it does happen more in Mexico, or any developing country one may choose, but only the fool would think him or herself immune or invulnerable, no matter where they may live. These photos do not blink, they confront these tragedies straight on, and yet they never seem disrespectful of the subject(s), or their fate. Many are presented matter of factly, death as a fact of life- but never as leering, voyeuristic creepshots. Others still go well past the fact, and actually make you reflect... and feel. Perhaps in part, because these are not the consequences of terrorists acts, or acts of war- but the domestic and civilian tragedies of everyday life. The penniless mother who carried her baby in a coffin, walking all 9 kilometers home; the guy who simply slipped on the sidewalk and cracked his head open till the life drained out of him; the mother who asked a police officer which was the oldest tree in the park- and then hung herself from it when her husband refused to allow her at her daughter's quinceanera.

No, they may not even look like you, but deep down, gut level down, you know you can't deny- their fate is every bit as universal as your front door...

Photo: Enrique Metinides