[3A] The Morgue / General Analysis
Click on miniatures to view full-size photo in a new window.
146 workers died in the Triangle Factory Fire. Some jumped to their deaths, others burned or suffocated. Fifty bodies were recovered on the 9th floor of the building alone, whilst 30 bodies were found at the bottom of an elevator shaft. After the fire, bodies were taken to 26th Pier Street. For hours only police, coroners and docters were allowed inside - uniformed figures can be seen amongst the relatives and friends of the victims in the top photo, "Triangle Fire". By 7pm of 25 March 1911, around 2000 people had gathered at the doors of the morgue, waiting to be admitted.
At midnight, about seven hours after the end of the fire, police began to allow groups of twenty at a time into the morgue to identify the bodies. Such groups can be seen in "Triangle Fire" and "Viewing Victims At The Morgue". Forty-three victims were identified that night; by the end of the week all but seven had been named. The two photos of bodies in the morgue are quite explicit, with burned heads and faces of victims clearly visible, yet at enough of a distance as to blur the details and perhaps to denote respect. Note the angle and framing of the photos - the repetive pattern of the white-swathed bodies and the slant of the camera's view suggests a continuation of the rows of bodies beyond the edges of the photo, the absence of a visible end point ominously suggesting that it could very well stretch onwards infinitely.
The last photo is given much of its context and hence its emotional impact through its title: "After Identifying A Body". At the centre of the photograph are a woman and man dressed in plain working-class clothes, possibly man and wife, walking towards the direction of the camera but apparently unaware of its presence. Directly behind them is a dark open doorway - the morgue - that they obviously just exited. The dark doorway almost acts as an internal framing device, drawing the eye of the viewer to the couple, whilst the other people in the photo (the officer at the door of the morgue, the man to the right of the photo who seems to be part of the couple's party, and the women and men at the left of the frame who seem to be waiting their turn to enter) also draw attention to them, either turning towards them or moving in relation to them. Of the two central figures, the man is turned towards the woman who is obviously distressed. Her apparent grief and horror are the visual and emotional focus of the photo, eliciting our sympathy for her loss and the loss of all parents, friends and relatives of the victims of the Triangle Fire.