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The Story Behind that NY Times Texting Photo
Monday, July 20th, 2009Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder posted my questions about that odd photo that accompanied yesterday’s NY Times cover story on distracted driving. A commenter pointed to this post from PDNPulse, which includes the explanation from photographer Dan Gill:
Last year, Gill was assigned a story for the Times that involved shadowing a group of high school students. This photograph is from that body of work, but it was not published until now.
Gill himself writes:
“In the course of doing the story in which I was hanging out with or shadowing three high school students I made the picture.
“I met them at their high school after classes and spent the evening with them. I told them I would be with them but to forget I was there. It did not take them long for them to forget I was there. We rode from school to one of their houses and down an inter belt highway. The driver was constantly texting ‘his girls’ throughout our travels. At one point on the eight-lane inter belt either the driver suggested his friend hold the wheel or his friend suggested it…and they did it.
“Were we safe? Probably not…. As journalists, we are not here to judge or to direct, but only to observe and tell the story.”
This seems like a plausible explanation. I’d imagine the paper’s archive of photos are searchable by keword. So if they went looking for a photo for the texting story, Gill’s popped up. It probably would have helped to include a short version of that explanation with the photo, though. Looks like I’m not the only one who wondered how it was taken.
I thought it was pretty obvious how it was taken: someone in the back seat took the photo.
Sure, it could have been staged, or even faked, but… Occam’s Razor and all that.
Ockham’s Razor would have led me to believe it was staged, because this photo being real means that there actually is somebody who texts with two hands, and not only that, but while driving. ;)
Though I guess at least part of it was trying to impress the “journalist who wasn’t there”.
My favorite photo of this type is from an old Road and Track article, Ferrari Daytona speedometer at approx 180 mph. Classic. No way it was staged. I couldn’t find it online and AFAIK there’s no way to post images in these comments….
Nice to see you got an answer to your question so quickly especially with the amount of photo-fraud going on in the news business lately.
Well, if that’s the speedometer on the right, then the car appears to be going about highway speeds. So, if it is staged, it still shows how stupid people can be (whether it’s just the driver or both the driver and the photographer who got him to do it).
Ok, I have to wade in here. While this is ridiculous, and the driver’s focus should be on driving (not texting, eating, or anything else – including not really driving as most US drivers simply know how to steer around big things, not any semblance of actual driving involved there really), it’s hardly THAT dangerous.
I occasionally have the passenger take the wheel while switching out glasses for prescription sunglasses (granted, I’m pretty damn vigilant as to what’s going on and would toss whatever pair was loose down and take the controls if any need arose; i.e, don’t try this at dusk in deer country kind of thing). A friend of mine is a little more unnerving, he’ll do two-handed tasks while steering with his knee, though admittedly he’s pretty good at it. The real issue is if you’re doing some task that takes your mind off the driving problem space, and as a motorcyclist I can guarantee you it’s not texting that’s the problem – it’s having a conversation with someone not in the car that’s the problem. I can tell if someone’s on the phone from a block away, at least, hands-free or whatever, it doesn’t matter.
(By “it” in the above comment, I mean the actual passenger-grabbing-the-wheel part, which I think I misread #5 as objecting to specifically. Rereading it, my post is evidently unnecessary.)
Tim C. – I agree completely, some people can do multiple tasks and some people can’t. And unless you harm someone this shouldn’t be a crime. Maybe stupid, but not a crime. We are again on the slippery slope, if texting is a crime, what other distractions can and will lead to a citation and will give the police any reason to pull you over. What about people that look at their phone to find a contact to call? If this was such the problem that everyone suggests, why have driving fatalities stayed the same for years? Bad drivers are bad drivers no matter what they are doing.
I did an email interview with the photographer too, but PDNPulse scooped me, dammit. Maybe Radley will be kind enough to let me promote it:
http://www.windypundit.com/archives/2009/07/story_of_a_photo_-_texting_whi.html
As for how dangerous this is, am I the only one here who was once young and stupid? Texting while driving is not the safest thing to be doing, but as teenage risk-taking goes, it’s pretty mild.
I’ve seen all kinds of distraction heavy activity during my years of commuting by motorcycle. People eating out of a bowl while steering with their knees, playing a video game on a laptop, doing lines of white powder, fighting with passengers, it’s really an endless list and all of the above at highway speeds.
Texting is only the latest variation.
A moto-cop told me he once pulled over a driver who was eating something with both hands. It was deep fried chicken and the drivers fingers were too greasy to roll down the window.
#8 True enough, nothing’s a crime without a victim. And if there IS a victim, our laws are often too lax. Drinking and driving, for example, is in and of itself, not a crime. And frankly, if I’m the victim I don’t care if the perp is drunk, stupid, texting, whatever – it’s the same to me. I think we’d have far better drivers if driving responsibly and well was enforced seriously, and drivers were expected to accurately assess their own abilities – be they related to multitasking, drinking, or speeding.