Pictures of Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack
Fear and confusion gripped millions of New Yorkers on September 11, 2001, the day these terrible pictures were taken. But the story behind them is even more frightening and unusual.
British Phil Penman was in his twenties, he worked as a news reporter and was enjoying his first weekend in six months when he heard a call that changed his whole life. I had to go to Wall Street and take pictures of the World Trade Center, which a plane had just crashed into. "When I got there, there was still a lot to come. The towers were burning, but we couldn't imagine what would happen next," says Penman. He is now 39 years old and has been living in New York for more than 15 years.
(18 photos in total)
Penman cycled to the World Trade Center as fast as possible, stopping periodically to film burning buildings. Penman was born and raised in a small, quiet village in Dorset, and although he used to work as a journalist in the UK and in the US, according to him, none of the photojournalists he was next to that day covered anything like this.
He thought that the skyscraper would burn, nothing special would happen and it would be time for him to return to the editorial office with the photos, so he decided to get closer, knowing that the police would probably soon cordon off the station. And then something happened that no one expected: the first tower collapsed.
"I still can hardly believe in the power of the events that we saw then. You take these pictures, you look through the viewfinder and you don't really see what's going on around you. When I think about it, I realize that I could have just died if the towers had collapsed in the other direction. I saw a couple of firefighters running towards me shouting "Run, son!", and this is one of the main reasons why I gathered my courage and ran."
Penman was able to get to the J&R music store when a cloud of dust and debris covered the city. When it happened, he was in the store with other people. "After a few seconds, nothing could be seen on the street, everything was black and black. We went deep into the store, a couple of policemen were standing at the entrance, and then a guy covered in ashes rushed into the building. I asked cowardly: "Do you mind if I take a picture?" I didn't have the heart to start clicking the shutter right away. And he said, "Sure, come on."" The resulting pictures of a man covered in dust, in a clean music store, surrounded by seemingly ordinary people, look unreal and scary. Photos of rescuers on the street who provided assistance to the victims look no less scary.
Sunlight on the street outside the store became noticeable only after ten minutes. And what was behind the door was a completely different world. "The first thing I remembered was the documents falling endlessly from the sky," the photographer recalls.
During these sad events, Penman and some of the heroes of his photographs managed to get acquainted. One woman named Jojo contacted him through the National September 11 Memorial and Museum when she saw a photo of herself and a friend wading through the dust. "I never imagined that my work was capable of such a thing. I'm just a photojournalist..." He was also approached by the daughter of the man he was filming, George Slee. "We periodically correspond by e-mail and every year we contact each other to find out how things are going. I went to see him in the Midwest. I think we will never fully understand the power of the event we went through."
"When the second tower began to collapse, I knew that this time I would not hang around there and take pictures. I ran to the door, there was a guy who didn't want to let us in. Then the policeman forced him to do it, saying: "You're going to open this door right now!" and we got inside. We were escorted to the basement. I remember just waiting, looking at the photos on my camera screen, waiting for everything to clear up outside. And then I went out and started filming those people who managed to survive again. I was standing in the only place where people managed to get out. I had friends on the west side who didn't see anyone come out alive."
According to Penman, what he saw that day changed his life forever. "I think about it all the time. It flashes through my mind every time I watch a movie and see towers. Even the movie "Wall Street" brings tears to my eyes, and it drives me into a stupor. I really love New York. I've always wanted to live here, and I perceive him almost as a person. Having lived on its streets for the last 15 years, I am very connected with the city and notice everything that is changing."
But he wouldn't want to forget these changes. "I want people to remember this. I don't want this to become another thing that is gradually being forgotten. The only way to learn from your own mistakes is to remember them. We cannot forget this," the photographer believes.
Keywords: September 11 | Towers | New York | Photographer | Photo report