trivial headlines, death and destruction: two days of front pages collaged together

if destruction is art, collaging is its most polite form, or so I thought until seeing these. scott kelly and ben polkinghorne’s latest series ‘the news before the storm,’ juxtaposes papers the day before and of world tragedies. 9/11. princess diana. london bombings and tsunamis — a common thread between these, scott and ben remind us, is how trivial our worries are before sobered by catastrophe. 

the day before and the day after
all images courtesy of scott and ben

‘for early risers, morning TV is a hot market/school dress code vs. a sea of bare flesh’ were headlines printed on the front page of new york times issue 51,873, until scott and ben cut them out and pasted them onto issue ‘874, september 12, 2001. suddenly ‘hot’ and ‘flesh’ feel different.

‘placing happy imagery and trivial headlines next to death and destruction was emotionally confronting,’ scott and ben told designboom, ‘however, we think the power of the idea comes when the visual juxtaposition is at its most extreme. we hope that by viewing the project people appreciate just how fragile our moment in time is.’

the day before and the day after

the day before and the day after

the day after and the day before