Firefighters Dan McWilliams of Long Island and George Johnson of Rockaway Beach (both from Ladder 157) and Billy Eisengrein of Staten Island (Rescue 2) raise the flag amid the debris of the World Trade Center. Thomas E. Franklin / The RecordIt was late afternoon on Sept. 11, about nine hours after the first plane hit the first tower, that photographer Thomas E. Franklin decided to walk back toward the rubble.
In front of him, he saw three firefighters raising an American flag from the debris of the World Trade Center.
“I made the picture standing underneath what may have been one of the elevated walkways, possibly the one that had connected the World Trade Plaza and the World Financial Center,” said Franklin, a photographer for The Record of Bergen County, N.J. “As soon as I shot it, I realized the similarity to the famous image of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima.”
The Iwo Jima photo won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for photographer Joe Rosenthal. Franklin’s photo has been touted as a likely finalist for the Pulitzer as well as World Press and Pictures of the Year.
“I don’t put a whole lot of merit in contests,” said Franklin, “but I do trust and respect the reaction of readers.”
And the reaction has been strong. The Record used Franklin’s photo on its front page in Sept. 12 editions, as did many other papers around the world that received the image via AP. The photograph generated so many requests for copies that The Record’s parent company, North Jersey Media Group, set up a special website to coordinate orders, distribution and donations.
The paper waived its usual $25 re-print charge as well as shipping and handling fees. Instead, the site recommends donations to its special North Jersey Media Group Disaster Relief Fund. More than 20,000 people have requested copies of the photo or have sent messages to Franklin, according to Rich Gigli, The Record’s director of photography.
In an editor’s note published with the photo, Record Editor Frank Scandale wrote: “Franklin’s photo of three heroic rescuers – Brooklyn-based firefighters Dan McWillians of Long Island, George Johnson of Roackaway Beach (both from Ladder 157), and Billy Eisengrein of Staten Island (Rescue 2) – also became a global message that life, and America, would go on.”
Franklin says he has been deeply affected by what he saw on Sept. 11.
“The events of that day are what sticks in my mind,” he says. “I cried a half-dozen times that day. My pictures tell only a small part of what I really saw.”
He added: “I am constantly amazed by the outreach that people have extended to me. The hook with this picture is the symbolism, bravery, and valor. They (the three firefighters) are saying ‘screw you’ to whoever did this. On that day, as I watched from Exchange Place in Jersey City, I was on the other side of the river. I was concerned for my brother (who worked at Chase Center), I was certain in my thoughts that the world was ending.”
The photographer says he has been surprised by e-mail and telephone calls from strangers, “people trying to tell me what this picture means to them.”
Franklin, who described the attention as “time-consuming and overwhelming,” has spoken to the Eddie Adams Workshop in upstate New York and the Associated Press Managing Editors meeting in Milwaukee, where he was awarded the Showcase Photo of the Year award.
On Sept. 11, with traffic blocked to all incoming traffic except emergency vehicles, it took a while for Franklin to make his way across the Hudson River. Finally, about noon, he caught a ride on a tugboat and made his way to Ground Zero, evading several arrest threats along the way.
As firefighters were preparing for the collapse of World Trade Center Building Seven, Franklin worked alongside famed photographer James Natchwey. The pair stopped to get something to drink before Franklin decided to head back toward the rubble. It was at that point that he spotted the scene that became his picture.
