"It's horrible what you're seeing unfolding, but part of
this job is being an eyewitness to history." So said AP video
journalist Bill Gorman about shooting news video of the attack on the
Pentagon for The Associated Press on Sept. 11, 2001.
Gorman and other AP journalists were interviewed for a special
exhibit commemorating the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks
on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on an airplane over
Pennsylvania. In addition to being on display at various journalistic
conferences and schools around the U.S., the exhibit is available to
the public online at www.ap.org/911.
Along with a 10-minute video, the exhibit features photographs
taken the day of the attacks, side-by-side with images of the same
sites taken in June 2006. Now retired, former AP senior staff
photographer Marty Lederhandler spoke of going back to the top of the
General Electric building from which he photographed the World Trade
Center towers after the initial attack. "It's a strange feeling. You
look at one picture with the building, and the current picture, no
buildings. Just an emptiness in the sky."
The then-and-now images juxtapose the horror of the 2001 attacks
with the hope of normalcy in 2006. "It's remarkable to me how much
change the city has made down there at Ground Zero in terms of
recovery," said AP staff photographer Mark Lennihan. The exhibit pays
tribute to the dedication and courage of all journalists who face
challenges and risks doing their jobs.
"We're first responders, like police and fire and ambulance people
are to disasters. Whenever it happens, you're a photographer and you
have to capture the scene," said AP Staff Photographer Richard Drew.
Drew also discusses his renowned "Falling Man" photograph, taken of a
World Trade Center victim who dropped from the side of the building
before it collapsed.
Other scenes in the exhibit include dust-covered New Yorkers
walking in the city after the towers collapsed, alongside smiling
faces on the same street in 2006; firefighters in front of the remains
of the towers next to an image of construction on the site this year;
and the Pentagon with a gaping hole six days after it was struck, and
today, appearing as if the attack had never occurred.
In the video, AP's Managing Editor Mike Silverman sums up AP's
efforts on Sept. 11, 2001, "We did the very best job we could in
pulling together all the different elements of the story, the
different formats and the different angles from all over the world.
And we try to do that every day."
The online exhibit also includes:
AP Log: Amid the chaos and confusion of Sept. 11, 2001,
broadcasters, newspapers and Web sites the world over relied on AP for
accurate accounts and aggressive updates.
9-11-01 News Flashes and Alerts: By day's end, AP had filed an
unprecedented 25 NewsAlerts, 18 bulletins, two Flashes and nearly
1,000 pictures. AP copy was quoted by broadcasters in every time zone,
on every continent.
2006--Coverage Continues: AP's coverage of the five year
anniversary of 9-11 will be available on member web sites. Highlights
of the coverage will be posted on exhibit web site as they become
available.
Copies of the physical exhibit, with photographic banners and
video, will be on display at professional journalism conferences and
journalism schools throughout the fall. Between September 7 and
September 11, the exhibit will be shown at:
-- The National Press Club in Washington, DC, in conjunction with
the release of a report by Marvin Kalb about historical
perspectives on the 9-11 attack.
-- Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University in Lawrence,
Kansas.
-- University of Arkansas in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
The Associated Press is a not-for-profit cooperative of U.S.
newspapers and broadcasters, a global network providing coverage of
news, sports, business, entertainment, politics and technology in all
media formats to some 15,000 news outlets in more than 120 nations,
reaching more than 1 billion people a day.
