The Most Haunting Photo I Ever Took
I wish I could forget it
Of all the photos I took in 2020, this one lingers the longest.
I was walking through the Bois de Boulogne on the western edge of Paris when I came to a bridge that connected the forest with Neuilly. It was the height of summer and the white hot sun had turned the grass yellow.
As I was crossing the bridge, I saw an abandoned wheelchair. It was right next to the guardrails, and parallel to them to boot.
What was it doing here?
Given the circumstances, I immediately assumed the worst.
I imagined that someone confined to a wheelchair for life had decided that that was all the life they could bear. I mean, why else would the wheelchair be side-on to the bridge if not to make the task of climbing over it easier? If it were facing the bridge, you could imagine they might have been admiring the view of oncoming traffic, as unconvincing an explanation as that may be. But a sideways chair implied something else.
It was such a tragic sight that I felt compelled to photograph it. It was as if by documenting the scene, I could somehow dislodge it from my mind — not that I’ve managed to so far.
I think the reason the image feels so haunting is that it’s impossible to know the true story behind it. For all I know, the wheelchair may simply have been left there by some random joker. In that case, then, my theory could be mercifully debunked as being needlessly paranoid.
But the fact I don’t know the truth — and most probably never will— means that the tension can never be resolved, and that mental images of a presumed tragedy will forever swim around in my mind, never finding closure.
