Falling Men : Images of the Falling Human in Art and Photography
- Falling is a metaphor and an image for a lot of possible human disasters like the fall of the angels, Adam’s fall in sin etc. but also falling prices on the stock market. But there is a harsh contrast between the beauty of the image of a (pictorially) suspended fall and the implicit crash which is rarely been shown. The images of falling individuals make clear to us the utter vulnerability of the possible dead. Images of falling humans are discussed in the context of photography- and media theory. Against the Background of historical representation of falling men as for example in Hendrick Goltzius Series ‘The Four Disgracers’, photographic images are in the center of the examination: the paradigmatic image of the ‘Falling Man’ (WTC 09/11) but also contemporary photographers/artists like Denis Darzacq, Gelatin and Cyprian Muresan.