The September 11 attacks, colloquially known as 9/11, were a coordinated series of suicide attacks perpetrated by the Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. A total of 19 terrorists hijacked four airliners. The first two planes were flown into each of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, while the third plane crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural field in Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt.
The attacks killed 2,977 people, injured thousands more, and gave rise to long-term health consequences while causing at least US$10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history, as well as the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement personnel in American history, killing 343 and 72 members, respectively. The crashes of Flight 11 and Flight 175 were the deadliest aviation disasters of all time, and the collision of Flight 77 with the Pentagon resulted in the fourth-highest number of ground fatalities in a plane crash in history.
— Wikipedia: 9/11 attacks
The company I worked for had a sabbatical program for employees. I happened to be on my sabbatical when this happened. On the morning of 9-11, I had finished a TaeKwon Do class and had stopped to refuel my car. When I went to pay for the gas, I heard people talking about the bomb in New York City.
I rushed home to find out what had happened. I spent the next 3 days glued to my TV watching reports about what had happened and what was being done for the survivors. It was grim.
I finally had to get out of the house and do something. I grabbed a camera, my Nikon N80, and some TMax film and headed out to the Ohio Historical Society. They have a recreation of a small village from the 1800s on the site. I spent the next two hours wandering the site and taking photos.
There is a small outdoor eating area on the site and as I walked by, my brain went to the friends and families of the people who died. The empty tables and chairs made me think about all the empty chairs the victims would never sit in, the meals they would not be there for, the family conversations they wouldn’t have.
I shot two frames.
The planning
There wasn’t a lot of planning involved in this shoot. I wanted to go somewhere where I could put aside, for a short while, the heartache that I felt for the people affected by the suicide attacks. Ohio Village is based on life in the 1800s, and I think my brain was telling me that this was a period without global terrorism, without the anger and hatred that we were seeing between the Arabic world and the Western world. There was little in the way of modern technology then.
The gear
My wife had given me the Nikon N80 as a Christmas gift the year before the 9/11 event. I had been shooting with it for 9 months and really enjoyed using that camera. At that time, I could also develop my own black and white negatives. Plus, the monochromatic colors seemed appropriate for what was going on at that time — the views held by both the terrorists and much of the Western world were very black and white.
The shot that came out
Technically, I think this image came out well: I have Zone III with detail in the shadow area, and Zone VIII with good highlights.
The black and white eliminates distractions and allows the eye to focus on the subject. There is a slight tilt to the image. At first I thought about fixing that, but I realized it made a lot of sense — our world had just been knocked askew. It was tilted, and may never be set right again. The absence of people reinforces the absence of relatives and friends killed in the attack.
When I returned to work, I brought the prints I had made to show my colleagues what I had been doing while I was away. When we got to this image and I explained what it meant to me, a few people would say “oh,” quietly and without much feeling. Others would respond with “WHOA!” You can tell which people got it and which didn’t. That’s ok, that’s part of life.
Reference
What I learned
Listen to that inner voice you have. Sometimes it may lead you astray, but there are times when it speaks to you and you really do need to listen. This was one of those.
Camera: Nikon N80
Lens: Nikon AF 28-50 f/3.3 – f/5.6
Film: Kodak TMax 100
Developer: Kodak TMax Developer
Location: Ohio Village, Columbus, Ohio
Subject: Outdoor eating area in the Ohio Village setting