In wake of #Germanwings flight #4U9525 crash I was baffled, as many, with the way modern day mass media dealt with the issue of depicting something that is not depictable. Besides the crash site in those remote mountains there is actually nothing to see. This catastrophe happens inside our heads, with no means for us to exorcise it by means of monotonous repetition of images as seen during 9/11. Here, we just have a result but no actual event. Even more so, that the main switch was flicked inside the brain of the 2nd pilot. There is no way whatsoever we will get inside his or any other human brain for that matter. This will always remain a mystery.
A clear need seems to be to show the man’s face, as if it could help us to understand his motives, his personality, his soul. Yet in some cases journalistic requirements breed strange results. How to show someone without showing him…