Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Categories: History

Fear and confusion gripped millions of New Yorkers on September 11, 2001, the day when these terrible pictures were taken. But the story behind them is even more frightening and unusual.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

British Phil Penman was in his twenties, working as a news reporter and 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.

He is now in his forties, and he has been living in New York for more than 20 years.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Penman cycled to the World Trade Center as fast as possible, stopping periodically to film the burning buildings. Penman was born and raised in a small, quiet village in Dorset, and although he had previously worked as a journalist in the UK and in the US, according to him, none of the photojournalists he was around that day covered anything like this.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

He thought that the skyscraper would still 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.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

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.

The resulting pictures of a man covered in dust, in a clean music store, surrounded by seemingly ordinary people, look unreal and scary. No less scary are the photos of rescuers on the street who provided assistance to the victims.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

The sunlight on the street outside the store became noticeable only after ten minutes. And what was behind the door was a completely different world.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

During these sad events, Penman and some of the heroes of his photos managed to get acquainted. A 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.

He was also approached by the daughter of the man he was filming, George Slee. 

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

According to Penman, what he saw that day changed his life forever.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

But he would not want to forget these changes.

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Pictures of the Briton Phil Penman, who was at the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack

Keywords: New York | History | September 11 | Photographer | Photo report | Towers

Post News Article

Recent articles

What will happen if the armoire is propped up with a jardiniere. How, you don't know what it is yet?
What will happen if the armoire is propped up with a ...

Surprisingly, many quite ordinary things have names that are unusual to our ears, but at the same time correct. You've probably ...

Lonely figures in a black-and-white world: mesmerizing images by a Japanese photographer
Lonely figures in a black-and-white world: mesmerizing images ...

Lonely people wandering in unusual, surreal surroundings, all in black and white—this is the hallmark of Japanese street ...

14 realistic portraits of celebrities made of denim
14 realistic portraits of celebrities made of denim

It turns out that you can make real art out of old denim things, and Ian Berry is one of the most famous artists who own this ...

Related articles

The kiss of shame and the carriage Masturbation: intimate traditions of Russia
The kiss of shame and the carriage Masturbation: intimate ...

Our ancestors often cited as an example of how innocent and chaste people who have no sense of depravity and sin. But in fact, they ...

Rare color photographs of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the XX century
Rare color photographs of the Russian Empire at the beginning ...

The cycle of color photographs captured in the distant 1911. Where one hundred years ago, took a color? How was it done? Indeed, ...

25 ancient human creations
25 ancient human creations

It's amazing how mankind has progressed over the last century, decades or even years. Science is advancing faster than ever, new ...