The most beautiful suicide

On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. ‘He is much better off without me … I wouldn’t make a good wife for anybody,’ … Then she crossed it out. She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Across the street photography student Robert Wiles heard an explosive crash. Just four minutes after Evelyn McHale’s death Wiles got this picture of death’s violence and its composure.

Questo quanto riportato da Life Magazine qualche giorno dopo il fatto.

La povera Evelyn McHale è passata alla storia come “the most beautiful suicide”, tanto che questa foto è stata pure rielaborata da Andy Warhol per la sua “Suicide (Fallen Body)”.

Era da tanto tempo che non vedevo questa foto e in effetti la compostezza e l’eleganza del corpo e del viso ne fanno una foto davvero singolare.