Enrique Metínides.

Images by Enrique Metínides.

I first met Enrique Metínides when I interviewed him for Colors Magazine, a few years back. When I rang his doorbell I was greeted by a small, thin, impeccably-dressed man in his 60s, who kindly showed me his Venice masks and porcelain frogs collection: the perfect host, that in one gentle breath offered you your choice of Blue Pepsi or Coke in their small, original glass bottles; plus your selection of fire, crash or murder pictures.

He has an uncanny nose for tragedy and accidents, always managing to be at the “right” place at the “right” time. And this started early on: he took his first death-picture (of a beheaded man) when he was only 11 years old. Soon after that he would skip school, and started riding with the police, clicking away; and of course he quickly became a yellow press photographer, widely respected for that strange almost aesthetic quality he was able to constantly capture.

You can listen to a VBS interview with Metínides here–produced by the talented globe-trotting Santiago Stelley, also an ex-Colors Magazine editor.