Dead From Drug Overdose
In 1972, the same year he joined the distinguished Magnum photo agency, Freed worked for the Sunday Times of London to chronicle the New York City Police Department and its activities in the five boroughs. In this striking image of a man who died of a drug overdose, Freed presents a vertiginous overhead perspective of the body lying on the dirty white tiles of a narrow hallway. This kind of "God’s-eye" view courses through crime photography, as evidenced by the Bertillon album and the Weegee photograph Human Head Cake Box Murder seen nearby. In the exceptionally violent final scene of his classic 1976 film Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, who was probably influenced by photographers such as Weegee and Freed, used a similarly startling overhead viewpoint.
Artwork Details
- Title: Dead From Drug Overdose
- Artist: Leonard Freed (American, 1929–2006)
- Date: 1972
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 24 x 16.2 cm (9 7/16 x 6 3/8 in. )
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel and Thomas Walther Gift, 2001
- Object Number: 2001.386.3
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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