Many people consider this to be the most controversial photograph taken on September 11, 2001.
In the photograph Thomas Hoepker took on 11 September 2001, a group of New Yorkers sit chatting in the sun in a park in Brooklyn... Ten years on, this is becoming one of the iconic photographs of 9/11, yet its history is strange and tortuous. Hoepker, a senior figure in the renowned Magnum photographers' co-operative, chose not to publish it in 2001 and to exclude it from a book of Magnum pictures of that horribly unequalled day. Only in 2006, on the fifth anniversary of the attacks, did it appear in a book, and then it caused instant controversy.Further discussion at The Guardian, and commentary by the photographer from 2006.
What was everyone else doing on 9/11? Not everyone was helping. Not everyone remained glued to their TV sets, straining to take it all in. Some people just craved normalcy after having their lives violently shaken that morning, and tried to "be normal" and "do normal things."
ReplyDeleteWhen we could stand watching the news no more, my sister and I went underwear shopping. I haven't said anything about that to anyone (other than a few close friends) because who the hell goes to Victoria's Secret on 9/11? But after hours of horror, we needed to Get Out and Turn It Off. She needed a new bra, so off to Victoria's Secret we went. Weird, huh?
Maybe these folks just needed to Turn It Off for a few minutes and just sit in the sun. There probably wasn't anywhere in NYC to get out from under the smoke. That's what I'll choose to believe is happening here.
A friend and I skipped our afternoon classes (we were in college) and built a tree house in the woods. It was nice to get away from all the craziness of that day for a few hours.
ReplyDeleteKeep calm and carry on. What were they supposed to do?
ReplyDeleteMe, i thought to the journalists i went to see 5 days before. Because of 40, the paper made sculpture of the twin towers, with "Under them the soil slips away" wrote on it, that i made in 6 exemplars and distributed to notables of my town ( Tours - France ), including the Mayor, in february 2001. Here a recent photo of it : http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7757/40thetwintowersprophecy.jpg
ReplyDeleteJust take a look at it. And give a chance to the mOtherblog ; today's page : http://yhwh1972.blogspot.fr/2012/04/1663.html
The introduction is going to surprise you even more : is.gd/GPPCz3
Amicably.
It's a very ambiguous picture, people can read whatever they want into it.
ReplyDeleteGiven the opportunity on that day, I would have been sitting in the sun with friends instead of in front of a TV screen as well.
After watching all of the CNN I could handle, I went outside in the sun and sat and talked about 9/11 to my neighbor. I'm sure we looked as casual and nonchalant as the people in the photo. It doesn't mean they weren't freaking out on the inside or that they weren't talking about it.
ReplyDeleteOn a bright sunny day, that image represents no more than 1/200 of a second. Don't judge.
I think the one woman leaning back gives the air of casualness to the pic that disturbs people. But maybe she's just leaning over for a sec to address her friend. Otherwise they don't look peculiar. Only so long you can gawk in horror?
ReplyDeleteMy college, which was in the same state, didn't cancel classes that day.
I don't see what the fuss is all about. It looks like they're just watching it from across the river and talking about it - it's not like they're kicking back with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, watching while Rome burns. I remember my father telling me that during the blitz in London, him and his sisters used to sit on the roof of their house and watch the fires burning in the neighbourhoods around them. Keep calm and carry on, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Watching from across the river.
DeleteIn a newer corporate building here in Texas, most of the employees were told to go to the large auditorium - this was because 300 employees streaming CNN was crippling our bandwidth.
ReplyDeleteVery much like this photograph, everyone was comfortably seated except thanks to the vending machines we had drinks and munchies while watching television. Upon the first tower falling, I got up and walked out but most everyone else stayed. I am guessing they thought that they were witnessing something they would never see again or perhaps they stayed because they were told to... for me, it was too weird watching real time suffering from the comfort of a movie theatre.
I cannot judge these people and I see nothing wrong here. Especially with the lack of context. The only way for these folks, who were not in a building, to see what was going on was to head to the water's edge - these people might not even know each other. The woman on the wall has twisted to listen to the speaking gentleman. Perhaps a moment earlier they were all quiet, staring and saying prayers or some more acceptable thing. Heck, the shadows and smoke suggest the towers fell maybe 30 minutes to an hour earlier? What should they be doing?
I agree with everyone above i)life does in fact go on, and ii) if you film something for 2 hours and then select one still from the film you'll be able to find something incongruous. I was out of the country on 9/11. I was glued to the television because I just couldn't believe someone would be idiotic enough to poke the sleeping giant that way.
ReplyDeleteTwo of the people in the photo emailed Slate to note that they had watched the towers fall from a rooftop and then came down by the river to watch further developments and be with other people. When the photo was taken, they were in the middle of an "animated conversation" about the catastrophe with the other people in the shot, strangers to them. They were all as concerned and upset as anybody else. The photographer didn't ask their permission to take the photo or even speak to them; he was rushing by, taking pictures as he went.
ReplyDeleteI got to work a little late that bright and sunny day listening to CDs the whole ride in (I had noticed a few other drivers looked like they were crying or distressed, there were even a couple cars pulled off to the side of the road but I barley noted it), the offices were oddly empty when I got into work, I grabbed my cup and walked to the break room to get some coffee and I saw the crowd gathered in front of the T.V. there...hard men I never saw emotional before were crying, the second tower got hit that moment, i briefly thought it was some horrible air control accident, my supervisor turned to me and said "We are being attacked, there's rumors there was an attack in Washington, we're at war". By the time I got back to my desk the phones were ringing as folks scrambled up and down the east coast to organize rescue and recovery teams. There was no one to rescue by the time our teams got there. I had access to a photo pool of horrors that a I dug through to pull out our companies images and had to sit there dealing with images I never imagined I would have to deal with.
ReplyDeleteThose people sitting on the river bank are beautiful. A seemingly normal moment in sight of disaster shouldn't be controversial, to me it's a sign of victory and triumph of the human spirit.
I can't believe everyone is so cool about this picture and can't see why it is controversial. Of course you should try to proceed with your life and try to get away from the bad hings that happen. If they were in any other place and decided to go out for a walk instead of watching the news of that horrible day, I would accept but they were RIGHT IN FRONT of the whole damn thing! How can you be so unfazed by it? They're not watching it on TV they are living it and that's what makes it controversial.
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