Listening to the National Public Radio this morning, the image in my mind was one that I had seen before. I could see the billowing black smoke from the World Trade Center Towers. The image was in my mind, and the headline would be “Attack on America Again.”
When I dropped my youngest daughter, Kara, off at school this morning, she asked three very pointed questions as the NPR reporter shared the developing news bulletin. “Dad,” she asked with the naivete of a 12-year-old, “is the plane stuck in the building, and didn’t this happen before when we lived in New York?” As she looked back before closing the car door she asked, “Daddy were there people on that plane?”
As I reached for the search button on the radio, flashes of the many photographers that I know and have worked with rushed through my head. In a moments time, I was back in my New York mode and recalling the disaster photo plan developed at Newsday after the, February 1993 terrorist bombing. It was indeed a Yori Berra, “deja-vu all over again” experience.
Minutes later I stood in the ICU of a local hospital. The TV monitor on the wall depicted an image far graver than my mental image. Suddenly, a second explosion, and the towers were now in flames as a crowd studied the TV monitor. Immediately I knew that this was a frame-grabbable moment. With modern technology, this image would grace TV screens, web pages, newspaper and magazine covers around the world. I also could not help but mouth the answer to my daughter’s question: Yes, there were people on the plane and many would die as a result of this tragedy.
In times like these, photographers and pictures editors are without a doubt the strongest links in the news coverage chain. They are on the streets, in the community, at the source of the action. They are at or very near “ground zero.” Editors are key, too, because they must not only assist their colleagues in the visual reporting process, but they must also raise the important ethical questions that accompany such dramatic images–images of horror, grief, and tragedy. These folks will not only endure the experience as observers, but as victims.
Such times require a strategic response to four important locations for photographic coverage. The one obvious location is the site of the damage or “ground zero.” If you can’t get someone into the perimeter within the first 20-30 minutes, forget about it, because the security will be tightened and airspace will be closed down, so flying will not be an option.
The reflective news groups will first turn to modern telecommunications technology (cell phones and alpha-numeric pagers) to direct and reroute any photographers in or near the area. The next move will be to cover the local hospitals within a two- to five-mile radius as victims are transported to those locations. Then there will be the need to gain elevation to get a high view to capture the perspective. As the story develops, there will be the need to photograph the survivors, officials, and experts.
In times like these, reasoned reaction is very important. The images of flames and smoke billowing above the symbol of international trade will grace the front pages in iconic fashion and the photographs of this evolving human tragedy will follow.
