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Subscribe to RSSIn his new documentary "Witness to History," photojournalist Thomas Franklin revisits 9/11 through the eyes - and lenses - of photojournalists who captured iconic photos that day.
When Tom Franklin, photojournalist for The Record newspaper in New Jersey, took the picture showing three firemen raising the American flag above the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he had no idea it would become an iconic image.
“It was something that just happened,” he said. “I shot it the best way I could and I moved on.”
Franklin said he was standing about 30 yards away from the three firefighters, and the photo was one of a series of frames he shot of them that fateful afternoon.
On the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, Franklin - now a multimedia editor for NorthJersey.com - revisits the day of the attacks in a new documentary about the iconic photos of the day and the photojournalists who captured them. Franklin says photographers played an important role in documenting the historic day.
“I hope a lot of people get to see [the documentary],” he told msnbc.com. “It’s a way of recognizing what journalists do.”
Featuring dramatic images of 9/11, the 13-minute documentary “Witness to History” looks behind the lenses of professional photographers such as David Handschuh of the New York Daily News and Aris Economopoulos of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, and accidental witnesses such as Carmen Taylor, who happened to be visiting New York from Arkansas that day.
Taylor, who was on vacation by herself, told Franklin she would have been screaming if she hadn’t been busy taking photos.
While iconic, most of the images from that day are stirring, if not shocking. Franklin argues there is real value in retelling what happened, particularly because of the horror of the events.
“9/11 was that bad,” he said. “It was that horrific.”
Watch the entire documentary here, and watch Thomas Franklin explain how he got the iconic image of the firemen raising the American flag.
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Amazing photo!!! The huge pile of rubble behind them is a reminder.
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These images fill me with rage. Now I know why my Grandfather felt the way he did when he saw images of Pearl Harbor.
9/11 is becoming like a celebration on TV, not sure if I should be sad or upset or celebrate or what to think!
it's the same thing every year but each time you get to see new footage, new people, new stories but not the truth etc...
We cannot bring those people back! instead let s focuse on showing prayers for the victims on TV more.. how to heal the wounds and let go anger and hate etc... instead! show how to replaced it with forgiveness and love and guide those who needs so!
MSNBC should allso focuse on those 1 million people who died in Iraq because of 9/11. I dont see any footage or stories been shown! lots of people wrongfully pay for 9/11 because we assumed and because we made up stories to kill intentionally! over a million non american people died as result of 9/11 how many people have to die for 3000 American people?
We should pray more and fulfill our heart with faith love and forgiveness and not be reminded of every little details and footage of 9/11 each time. by showing us those footage! our hearts will never heal and we will never be able to move on and forgive and make peace within ourselves
The three thousand people who died on 9/11 were NOT all Americans. They were people from many different places and yes in a way it is a celebration.... a celebration of life...those who gave it and those left to pick up the pieces of their own lives. Your forgiveness plea will take much more time to achieve. They are wonderful words, faith, love, forgiveness but your comments are tainted by the hint of accusation. Do you think we as Americans have not been told the truth? If you know the truth are you going to share it? What stories were made up? Perhaps you didn't personally know someone effected by the horrific events of 9/11 or perhaps you have never suffered a personal loss so that you could have empathy for all those who lost someone that day. But Americans and all those who grieved that fateful day will NEVER grow tired of the images we see depecting the anguish, and the terror. We will NEVER FORGET!!
i will never foget that horriable day ever,i remember were i was and what i was doing i just wanted to go home and to be with my family. when i did get to go home it was so quiet on the streets of milford, pa. i felt like i was the only one on the road and actually i was when i got home my husband was still at work so i turned the tv on and what i saw what happened i was horrified i just started to cry and couldnt stop i was sobbing i felt like i needed to go and comfort those people so so sad for days after i was glued to the tv set.
I think it was terrible and should be remembered , But I also saw a photograph of an Afghan man standing in Rubble where his home once stood and his entire family had been killed and everything he ever wanted destroyed by a drone .That too was a tragedy and perhaps should be remembered . No one asks why when there attacked and no one cares when its on T V and no one stops to think how relative loosing a family is to another race or people The Amerikan people as a whole have become Callus and think were the only ones capable of feeling sorrow for loosing something ..War is Hell and everyone on both sides suffer the consequences.
I currently live in Baltimore, Maryland, but I will always be a New Yorker. I watched the towers come down from a vantage point on the Whitestone Bridge crossing over from Queens to the Bronx. I too, like many millions of people wanted retribution for the acts that claimed the lives of seven people from my past, in addition to thousands there on that fateful day. However I did not want to attack the wrong country, kill millions of people, waste hundreds of billions of our tax dollars, and risk the lives of our young soldiers, all for a lie. The final act, after bringing our young ones home, should be to prosecute the people responsible for this grave miscarrige of 'justice'.
The effects of 9/11 has reached around the globe. My sister had moved to NYC from Sydney, Australia to pursue her music career and she also worked as a sound technician for Reuters news service. I was at home due to give birth to my second child any day and we got the call around 11pm, Sydney time. My sister got to call from a satellite phone and said Im ok , were going in but we will be ok. Because I went to bed early I didnt know what she was talking about, so she said "Turn on the TV"! and thats when I saw it, those images we will never forget. She was working for Reuters that day and they were going in to ground zero while everyone was running from it. I felt sick and didnt sleep that night. Many Australians like myself were stunned and horrified at what took place that fatal day. Luckily for us my sister is still in NYC with a beautiful husband and baby.
9/11 has not been the only horrific act done by those that hate, places all over the world have been stricken by terrorists of all nationalaties. It's not just the islamics that hate and want to distroy everything that is not what they are, Timothy McFay was not islamic and yet he destroyed and killed, IRA back when did the same. I don't care what your faith is, religion can be just as cruel and evil as non religion, all the books written thousands of years ago have been read, revised and preached by human beings, and as you know there isn't a human being alive that has the same interpretation of the written word as the next person and that goes for not just the bible but all religous writings. Chapters in the bible were decided upon by men as to whether or not they should be allowed in the bible. If as they say the bible was dictated to prophets by God then why did "religious" men have a say in what was to be published, why wasn't all of it published. Because they only wanted the people to follow what they interpretated as relevant to how they thought and wanted others to think. No matter what our faith is if we kill for no other reason than hating a culture for what they believe in then we are all doomed. The human race will always be at odds with each other because there are to many variables do deal with. If truth be known, I was told that one day Jesus would come back and take all those that believe in him and truly with all their heart ask to be forgiven for their sins to heaven, I wish he would come now, today, but honestly I think heaven is going to be pretty empty because there is more hate and evil in the world than there is love and goodness and I don't feel that it will change any time soon.
When those animals attacked the World Trade Center towers, and the Pentagon, they thought that by bringing down/damaging such significant structures that it would cripple the United States - how wrong they were. These terrorists need to start studying history more. After the attack on pearl Harbor, the large majority of Japanese were celebrating - except for the architect of the attack itself, Admiral Yamamoto, who simply stated "..we have awakened a sleeping giant...". While Americans can sometimes be divided by religion, politics, and geography - the one thing that always remains in the end is this - we are ALL Americans and when you attack one of us, you attack the other 300 million! By attacking us, you UNITE us all, and in the end we WILL prevail. Freedom is our driving force and no country or animal like bin Laden will EVER be able to crush this cornerstone of our nation. May GOD bless the United States of America, now and forever!
"Chuck" Scarborough of WNBC in NYC said a day or two before the 9/11 ceremony, that instead of a day of remembrance perhaps it should remain a day of "infamy". It makes sense to apply it so, though I think it also requires we remember that there may be other information we need to know. In regards to the attack on Pearl Harbor the honorable Senator from Arkansas, Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, thought too "gut reaction", decided not to vote for the declaration of war after the attack, so stating in her speech, which required some research and "archaeology" to retrieve in the 1980s. I looked at a researcher's work at The Mainichi Daily News, the Japanese press, him or her, not Japanese, who was surprised how little research was done by both countries in regards to the time immediately preceding that WWII "infamy". In that research a translation of a "declaration of war" was never transcribed as the Japanese transcribers were at a funeral "outside the beltway" on an unusually warm December day and the pastor's eulogy went on for over two hours, the research asserts. I imagine therefore some other history might have occurred, long story short. In any case, we need better language translations, I'm given to understand we still have less than the digits on our hands for Arabic in the FBI.
Seeing this sends chills down my spine. None of us will ever forget. No matter who we are, or where we were when this happened everyone who was breathing, will remember forever those who lost their lives. Remember the fallen, and never forget what we fight to protect.