9/11 Remembered, "Falling Man"

[echoes]

Just saw this story, and clicked though the 18 images shot by this photographer. Very hard-core, remembering this was on Our American soil.

May We Never Forget. And Never Forgive.


http://news.yahoo.com/photographer-b...n-soldier.html

Photographer behind 9/11 "Falling Man" retraces steps, recalls "unknown soldier"

Richard Drew put down his camera bag and looked up at the colossal skyscraper that seemed to be racing toward the clouds at an accelerated clip.

"I'm really surprised how fast this building's gone up," he said of the rising edifice at 1 World Trade Center, peering at the monolith from beneath the brim of a tan baseball cap. "I just hope it isn't another target."

It was around 2 p.m. on a bright Wednesday afternoon in mid-July, and Drew, a veteran Associated Press photographer with wire-rimmed glasses and a neatly cropped silver beard that betrays his 64 years, was standing near the northwest intersection of Vesey and West streets in Lower Manhattan, across from the noisy jungle gym of cranes and steel where a global business hub is currently being reconstructed. Nine years and two months earlier in this very spot -- now an austere pedestrian plaza in the shadow of the Goldman Sachs building -- Drew took a picture that became one of the most iconic images of one of the most catastrophic events in American history.

"I don't like coming down here," he admitted.

But he had nevertheless returned to retrace his steps for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, when he had watched dozens die through the lens of a Nikon DCS620. On that similarly brilliant morning a decade ago, two planes had crashed into the Twin Towers by the time Drew emerged from the Chambers Street subway stop around a quarter after nine. The 110-story buildings looked like a pair of giant smokestacks spewing plumes of black soot into the crystal blue sky. He began shooting, focusing on the topmost floors. It wasn't long before he realized that some of the people trapped inside -- as many as 200 of them, it was later estimated -- had decided that plunging thousands of feet to their deaths was preferable to burning alive.

"There's one. There's another one," he said, recalling the horrific scene with a detached ease. "I just started photographing people as they were falling."

One of those people would come to be known as the Falling Man. Though his identity remains unconfirmed, some believe he was Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old sound engineer who worked in a restaurant on the top floor of the North Tower. The man fell at 9:41, and Drew caught about a dozen frames of his fatal descent. In one of them, the subject soars earthward in a graceful vertical dive -- arms at his sides; left leg bent at the knee

"Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it," wrote Tom Junod in a renowned 2003 Esquire piece that coined the title of the photo, which won a 2001 World Press Photo award and is the subject of a 2006 documentary film. "If he were not falling, he might very well be flying."

Newspapers the world over made space for the Falling Man in their Sept. 12, 2001, editions. But the widespread publicity sparked a debate as to whether the image was too gratuitous for public consumption. "To me, it's a real quiet photograph," Drew argued. Unlike fellow AP photographer Nick Ut's Pulitzer-winning 1972 shot of a naked 9-year-old girl fleeing a napalm attack in Vietnam or Drew's famous photos of Bobby Kennedy's bloody dying breaths, "There's no violence in it," he said.

It was now close to 3 p.m., and Drew had decamped to a Shake Shack a few blocks from Ground Zero for a late lunch. Waiting for his food to arrive, Drew said he doesn't attend the memorial ceremonies held each year at the hallowed site nearby, nor does he plan to show up for the 10th anniversary of the tragedy. He was just doing his job that day.

[Dusty]

Good post.

[Dozer523]

I'm sorry but these pictures have no business being available to the public.
The victims are not "graceful" and to say someone 'embraced the fall in the last moments" is a pathetic attempt to justify posting them.
Yes, the tragedy needed to be recorded (similiar to the pictures Eisenhower and Patton demanded at the Nazi concentration camps) but only as proof that these things happened.

What if a sound man had been there? Would be impressed that he captured a scream of terror?

I've often wondered if I would have jumped, in the hope my body might be recovered.

[Jgood]

I disagree, I believe these photos and images need to be shown more often, it seems people have forgotten what happened that day and those days from that past( similar to the pictures Eisenhower and Patton demanded at the Nazi concentration camps). We as a society are all to quick to forget the pain and suffering caused by these events. I don’t think we need to dwell in the past but we must remember.

Originally Posted by Dozer523

I'm sorry but these pictures have no business being available to the public.
The victims are not "graceful" and to say someone 'embraced the fall in the last moments" is a pathetic attempt to justify posting them.
Yes, the tragedy needed to be recorded (similiar to the pictures Eisenhower and Patton demanded at the Nazi concentration camps) but only as proof that these things happened.

What if a sound man had been there? Would be impressed that he captured a scream of terror?

I've often wondered if I would have jumped, in the hope my body might be recovered.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by Dozer523

I'm sorry but these pictures have no business being available to the public.
The victims are not "graceful" and to say someone 'embraced the fall in the last moments" is a pathetic attempt to justify posting them.
Yes, the tragedy needed to be recorded (similiar to the pictures Eisenhower and Patton demanded at the Nazi concentration camps) but only as proof that these things happened.

What if a sound man had been there? Would be impressed that he captured a scream of terror?

I've often wondered if I would have jumped, in the hope my body might be recovered.

I'm sorry guys but I agree with Dozer 100%.........

Big Teddy

[casey]

I get part of Dozers point, and I too think its totally absurd that some "writer" pens his opinion as to what this persons thoughts were as he plunged to his death.

Would the same writer have gotten away with describing the thoughts of dying Jews in the concentration camps as "Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it"? Why, its almost like an effortless (albeit graceful) death, no need to think about his seconds or minutes trying to contact his loved ones, give no thoughts to his stark terror of realizing no help is coming, and he's choking on the thick smoke, or the utter despair he felt knowing that his only way away from a certain agonizing death by fire, is to jump.... it was after all, just a man caused disaster...... no responsibility here....just "gracefullness"....

But I believe I would take it even further than Jgoods thoughts - I think the photos - and their correct stories, should be shown and retold over and over again until the photos and individual stories do not become "art work" or literary opines, but just what is - a cold fact that none can look away from.

It is all too easy to forget just how many people perished, how they perished, and WHY they perished that day. So I don't really see it as our past -yet. After all, to how many current (and future) man caused disasters could/will we put the caption of "This death committed in the name of Islam" to?

[mojaveman]

I think that there has to be some point of balance between being insensitive to the victims but also remembering them and the event. I agree that it's too easy to take a picture of someone falling to their death and then make casual comments about it. It's even worse to make yourself rich from it. Perhaps images of the events as they happened that aren't so focused and personal that someone could identify the victims would be more appropriate.

[head]

Agreed with both good posts by casey and mojaveman.

[ddoering]

I think they should be shown every day to remind people, both American and everyone else as to why we are at war. Even now there are those who question why we are in Afgahnistan, claiming we are waging a war of agression. I would point to Pearl Harbor as an example. Last year you barely heard a peep about it on TV. The farther we get from events like this, the circle of people that remember it grows smaller and smaller. At the same time the circles of nuts and conspiracy theorists grows larger and larger. 100 years from now the attacks will be listed in the history books as a covert CIA/Mosaad joint operation to allow the US to take over the middle east for its resources.

Hell, look at the Iranian Pres, I'madinnerjacket. He has a case of Holocaust denial in spite of the documented evidence.

[Richard]

Personally, pictures of the Manhattan skyline with the twin towers burning is a more powerful pic to remind me of the dangers to us all from radical militant groups.

Richard

[echoes]

Originally Posted by Jgood

I disagree, I believe these photos and images need to be shown more often, it seems people have forgotten what happened that day and those days from that past( similar to the pictures Eisenhower and Patton demanded at the Nazi concentration camps). We as a society are all to quick to forget the pain and suffering caused by these events. I don’t think we need to dwell in the past but we must remember.

Sir,

Your post summizes the reason for this thread's beginning. Images are now, thanks to the Internet, only a click away.

However, I remember only reading and seeing photos of events such as Pearl Harbor, and the Nazi camps in textbooks as a child. The weight of those events to me personally was different at the time, due to my age and knowledge of world events, but I did know that they were both horrific, and that real evil did exist in the world, after seeing them.

I will not post the picture, (it can be googled), but the image of firefighter Chris Fields holding the dying infant Baylee Almon on April 19, 1995, after the OKC bombing comes to mind as another example that terrorism is alive and well here inside our own borders. This reminder is heart-wrenching to look at, but serves a purpose, IMVHO.

Interesting thoughts made by all.

Holly

[PRB]

An event is more easily remembered for its horror if it has a face on it.....we all know what happened at/during the holocaust in NAZI Germany, but the numbers are mind boggling and the scope of official murder hard to emotionally wrap ones brain around.
I have a picture of a 4 year old Jewish girl awaiting the showers/ovens holding her Mothers hand and looking at the German held camera with confusion as only an innocent can. It needs no explanation or fact quoting. It is what it is. Pure unadulterated evil.
Sometimes you have to put a face on it.

[BOfH]

Pictures speak a thousand words; even the best writers struggle to build a mental image which mirrors what they are picturing at the time they put pen to paper, and even then, it is all subject to interpretation. Pictures, not so much; it is very hard to deny that which is in black and white(or color) when you are staring at it, and we need to see it again and again in an attempt to stem the tide of history repeating itself. I do agree with casey though, screw the dramatic captions, a simple "Man jumping to his death from WTC attacks by Islamic terrorists" more than suffices.

[echoes]

Originally Posted by BOfH

Pictures speak a thousand words; even the best writers struggle to build a mental image which mirrors what they are picturing at the time they put pen to paper, and even then, it is all subject to interpretation. Pictures, not so much; it is very hard to deny that which is in black and white(or color) when you are staring at it, and we need to see it again and again in an attempt to stem the tide of history repeating itself. I do agree with casey though, screw the dramatic captions, a simple "Man jumping to his death from WTC attacks by Islamic terrorists" more than suffices.

And you know what sir? :-)

This written word of yours describes perfectly what a large portion of Americans hear, instad of see. Indeed there are those that are blind, that know and understand fully the impact of 9-11, without the added benefit of being able to see images on a screen.

Think about it.

If a person had seen no image, no picture, no video, but only heard the commentary on TV/ or had a voice program read it from the computer, would that person be any less angry at the cold-hearted, blood-thirsty terrorists who perpetrate such evil upon us all?

My only hope is that there continues to be brave SF men, and others who will stand up and fight for those in our soceity who cannot fight for themselves because they are really disabled, and would be the first ones slaughtered by those who hate us, if given the chance.

Holly

[BOfH]

Originally Posted by echoes

If a person had seen no image, no picture, no video, but only heard the commentary on TV/ or had a voice program read it from the computer, would that person be any less angry at the cold-hearted, blood-thirsty terrorists who perpetrate such evil upon us all?

Spot on, though as PRB said, pictures lend that human side of tragedy more than words ever will, which can be the straw that broke the camels back in terms of action taken. Additionally, pictures can speak a truth which words can cloud; how I might describe a scene may differ how you would describe the same scene, based on point of view or how we interpret things and put them into words.

My only hope is that there continues to be brave SF men, and others who will stand up and fight for those in our soceity who cannot fight for themselves because they are really disabled, and would be the first ones slaughtered by those who hate us, if given the chance.

Holly

Amen to that!

ETA: I know this is going off on a bit of a tangent, but, I highly recommend watching "The boy in the striped pajamas" for a prime example of what picture can do.