Student essay on 9/11 photography, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Coinmemora(5\'e ecUiion by Uic students of Stuyvesanl Migh School

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tgl! I felt guilty for days after running from the dust cloud of the second World Trade Center tower collapsing, guilty that on top of being so lucky as to escape with my life, I had the nerve to shoot pictures of the demise of thousands. I spoke with my father's friend from Bronx Science who is now a photographer for ConEd. Both of us, like many others who photographed the collapse of the WTC, did so with tears in our eyes. I told him that I was ashamed to be taking pictures, but he said that it was our responsibility. He told me that through our pho­ tographs, even more than our writing, the world would remember what happened on Septemb'er 11, 2001. I told my father that I would venture out with my camera to take pictures. I felt sorry that I had moped around the house and wandered Lower Manhattan for the last four days, without taking any pictures. I felt guilty that I had let the sorrow of my fellow New Yorkers, as well as my family, go unrecorded. I felt a respon­ sibility to take pictures because I was there, I ran from the debris cloud, and even more horribly, thought my father, mother, and many family friends were inside or in adjacent buildings. I told my father that for the sake of my children, and my children's children, he should do the same and go help to record history. He said that he had been in bed crying for the past two days. He couldn't watch the news, and couldn't look at the pictures. I've always known he wasn't able to look at pictures of the Holocaust or of the Vietnam War without wincing and turning away. This is because he saw the pictures of Vietnam and World War II. They conveyed to him at least a little of the trauma that those who were there lived through. The reason we should be taking pictures is so that thirty or sixty years from now, people will see them and have to turn away. To all of you, if you can bring yourself to do it, please take some pictures that will capture the present suf­ fering, and unity in America. Write about it. Make sure no one ever forgets.

-Ethan Moses

All photos in this issue are by senior Ethan Moses.

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