The New Yorkers on 9/11
I've spent over twenty years trying to find the people in this photo. I'm still looking.
We were all watching the Twin Towers burn and bodies fall to the ground. Followed by sounds, like car crashes, that haunt me to this day. I could no longer bear to watch — I turned around and this is what I saw. As I took the photo there was a loud crack and the South Tower began to collapse. We ran.
It was 9:59 A.M. on September 11, 2001.
Along with everyone else, I was terrified. A massive gray cloud blanketed Lower Manhattan. As the dust began to settle, I started shooting pictures again, though none are as memorable or meaningful as the photo of the stunned crowd.
After the second tower fell, I walked north to my apartment, dazed, stopping along the way at a pay phone to call my mom and let her know I was ok. Sadly, tragically, 2,753 others were not.
The New Yorker, TIME, and Newsweek passed on the crowd photo but U.S. News and World Report did not. Thanks to the efforts of photo editors Olivier Picard and Bronwen Latimer, they were the first to publish. Ever since then, I’ve been searching for the people gazing upwards in the photo, watching the world change.
In 2012, I used social media in an attempt to find them. A guy on Facebook messaged me, saying he recognized his father, Benjamin, as the man in the center with glasses. He was supposed to be in the World Trade Center that morning for a job interview but was running late. “As I walked out of the subway, I saw the building on fire and didn’t know why,” Benjamin told me. “I was in complete shock. I would have been in that building while the planes hit.”
After articles about my search appeared in TIME and The Atlantic in 2013, I was fortunate to discover the names of five others — Anthony, Rodger, Ramzy, Alfredo, and Wanda.
Since then, I’ve found three more — Ryan, Craig, and Sharon. Many remain.
I'm sharing this photo for the first time, taken just moments before the South Tower collapsed, hoping it may trigger some memories.
Side note: I made these photos with a Leica M6 and Kodak T-Max 400 black and white film. Serendipitously, my 35 was broken so the only lens I had was a 24. I processed the film in my neighbor’s kitchen darkroom at 11 Stanton Street. That same neighbor, Cary Conover, shot this photo of me the following day, September 12, 2001.
The search continues. If you recognize anyone, please reach out: patrickwitty@gmail.com.
We were in the Musée d'Orsay snack bar where people were having coffee under the giant backward clock. I took a picture: it was 3:10 pm in Paris. Later, we went to a raclette restaurant and had the best fondue either of us had ever eaten. The waiter approached us with a tear in his eye and, thinking we were American from our conversation, told us he was sorry for our loss. Wait. What?! He then told us that two planes had hit the twin towers in New York. We immediately thought: air show, a couple of small antique planes missing their mark and hitting the immovable objects of the World Trade Center - sad for the two pilots and the office workers who were close to the windows, we thought. Our hotel had CNN and when we got back to our room, we watched in horror as the TV played and replayed the reality of the two fuel-filled, passenger planes driven into the iconic buildings by a handful of self-absorbed, superstitious fools and their resulting collapse. We were stuck to CNN in our room for the next three days. Our flight home to Toronto was the first flight allowed to leave Paris after the tragedy. My nail clippers were confiscated by security. Every minute of those three days remains frozen in my mind.
Stunning (and haunting) photos. This is such a worthwhile endeavor to hang onto all these years. I sometimes feel like 9/11 has faded for the general population but in my mind and heart, it's a frozen moment in time.
I wasn't even near it, I'm in western Canada. But the emotional impact has never left me.