Building Suicide Photographer Mystery

Last Friday, 43 year-old Susan Pogolowitz committed suicide by falling off a Chelsea building. She had a history of mental illness depression and had been living with her aunt, photographer Flo Fox. Fox, who is legally blind, took photographs of her niece's body, but there are conflicting reports of whether or not Fox knew that it was her niece. The Post says that Fox had a suspicion the woman who jumped off her buliding (Fox was in another part of the building at the time) was her niece when she grabbed her camera to take pictures of the body, while the Daily News implies that Fox was didn't know it was her niece who fell as she took pictures. The Post also noted, "Fox defended her ghoulish photo shoot, saying that's how she remembers everything. 'I keep a history of every day of my life,' Fox said." Gothamist found it interesting, since we think we would try to capture an incident with our cameras, but if it hit close to home, who knows what we would do.

More about Flo Fox here; above is a photograph by Fox.