This is not a photo that will win any awards, but, in the 30 minutes it took me to photograph and process it for print in today’s paper, I was reminded of my own experience with 9/11. I was a senior in high school in 2001, and remember hearing from another student before class started about the first tower being hit. Once class started, we all turned on the classroom TVs with their fuzzy reception and watched as history was made before our eyes. Now, it gets a few paragraphs boiled down to bare facts in a high school history textbook, with a brief history of the Middle East and terrorism. Oddly enough, this does tie in with the job I have today: after school I went to my internship at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and remember being astounded at the photos I saw coming across the wire from New York. I was amazed at how powerful even a single image was, and how photos from Ground Zero let us all witness and experience the events of that day, even if to a very small degree.
Oi. I remember I was in Physics class and someone walked in saying "the towers are down" and I was like, "oh no, what now" since Grapevine was in its ghetto-phase, I thought it had to do with something at school. Then, we went to the class next door with a tv and just watched in silence and in shock. During passing period, I felt an urgent need to find a few key people to pray with. Amazingly, I found them, and we huddled in the middle of the hall together to pray. That is all I remember in vivid detail.
ReplyDeleteI was taking a photo communications class in college when I heard about the towers. I remember photographing hundreds of college students in the SUB watching a little 19 in. TV as history unfolded. I still shot film back then. Wonder if I can find those negs......hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteI was in Switzerland, at school. It was a strange feeling to listen the news on radio...
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