I was thumbing through The Guardian this afternoon, and I came across a series of photos taken by a photographer named Amy Weston. Before anything else, just look at these three photographs – the light is so intense, the story it tells is of horror:
Holy sh*t, people. Those images are Amy Weston's experience photographing a woman jumping from a burning flat building in London during these crazy riots that are happening. Crazy? Yes. The crazy part comes from the destruction that takes place, because whatever voice you had before the riot is now gone because some people who like breaking stuff screwed it up for everybody. I said it, just like in Toronto recently when the black face mask people kicked in windows and generally caused a bunch of chaos. People who want to have their voices heard en masse really get screwed when the troublemakers turn it into a criminal enterprise.
A side note: the last time I was in Croydon it was to prep a show in the Fourth Phase UK lighting shop. Remember Fourth Phase?
From the article at The Guardian:
The photographer who took the shot of a woman leaping from a burning building in Croydon used on five national newspaper front pages on Tuesday has told of the mayhem as she captured one of the most dramatic shot of the riots.
Amy Weston had been told there were fires in the Church Street area of Croydon near Surrey Street market and was driving to the scene when she heard screaming by some shops that were in flames.
"There were six or seven people screaming and crying outside, and they looked like they lived at the flats that were burning. The flats were above small independent shops," said Weston, who works for the London-based Wenn picture agency.
"A man in a white shirt was screaming that a girl was at the window and that she was ready to jump. He ran towards her but riot police had appeared and pulled him back, and they went to her instead.
"As soon as she dropped, the crowds pushed back and there was no way to see what happened to her. I remember hearing people screaming that there were more people in the building. The crowds started getting angry with each other, with one group blaming another group for starting the fire.
Let's hope those people and any other people harmed in these riots make it through to see the next day.
Thanks to the Guardian and to Huffington Post.