I thought more about Kerry Skarbakka, the performance artist from my post earlier today.
I decided, despite the artist's sincerity, that his performance ultimately fails. For one, the men and women who leapt from the World Trade Center did not simply fall. They jumped. This act of will - this choice between searing flames and a hard crash on the concrete below - is essential to the horror of their deaths.
Secondly, Mr. Skarbakka uses wires and pulleys. The victims of 9-11 had no such luxury. The fact that Skarbakka edits out the wires for his documentary photographs feels dishonest somehow - an erasure of history, of passion and feeling and humanity. The exact opposite of his stated intentions.
The photos would work better with the wires left in. With the wires and pulleys visible, viewers can ponder their presence and absence. And then the metaphor comes alive.
To me, his falls - and doctored photos - can never be metaphor. Simile perhaps. But not metaphor.