‘The Falling Man’ remains one of 9/11's most haunting images — a lone figure plunging from the burning Twin Towers before they fell on September 11, 2001.
Captured by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew moments after al-Qaeda hijackers slammed two planes into the towers, the image is of a man falling from the North Tower. It became one of 9/11's most enduring images, a stark symbol of the thousands of lives lost that day.
It wasn't the only photograph of people falling from the towers that day — but its composition set it apart, and made it endure.
One frame, one man
Deep Dive
What is the significance of 'The Falling Man' photo from 9/11?
How did Richard Drew capture 'The Falling Man' photograph?
Who is identified as 'the falling man' in various reports?
Drew, who was at the site as the attacks unfolded, could hear victims falling or leaping to their deaths between the first jet collision and the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
He, however, trained his 200mm zoom lens on one man and fired off several frames. At the time, he did not know that one of those images would become one of 9/11’s most enduring images.
The image: A lone figure falls between the towers, nearly upright, arms at his sides, one knee slightly bent — eerily still against the chaos around him.
The picture appeared in several US newspapers, including The New York Times, but criticism from readers led to it being briefly withdrawn.
How was the photo taken?
{{/usCountry}}The picture appeared in several US newspapers, including The New York Times, but criticism from readers led to it being briefly withdrawn.
How was the photo taken?
{{/usCountry}}The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer had travelled to New York's Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, about 3.5 miles from the World Trade Center, to attend a maternity fashion show when he learnt about the attack.
Moments later, his editor called him, saying: “Bag the fashion show. You have to go.”
Drew rushed to Times Square and took a subway train towards Chambers Street, one stop from the World Trade Center. By the time he emerged from the station, the second plane had struck the South Tower. Both towers were burning, and the streets were filled with smoke, sirens and anxious people trying to escape.
As Drew lifted his camera to capture 'the falling man', a first responder pulled him away towards safety. He, nonetheless, still managed to click the frame.
“I didn't take the picture. The camera took the picture of the falling man. And when these people were falling, I would then put my finger on the trigger of the camera and I'd hold the camera up, and I'd photograph and follow them going down, and then the camera would open and close and take the pictures as they were going down. I have, I think, eight or nine frames of this gentleman falling, and the camera just happened to cycle in that time when he was completely vertical. I didn't see that picture really until I got back to the office and then started looking at my stuff on my laptop. I didn't see it,” he was later quoted as saying by CBS news.
Back at the Associated Press office at Rockefeller Center, Drew went through the many photographs he had taken in quick succession and spotted one image that stood out.
“We're seeing him in the last moments of his life,” Drew later said.
Who was 'the falling man'
Some reports identified the man as Norberto Hernandez, an employee at Windows on the World, a restaurant that was on top of the North Tower, according to The Toronto Globe and Mail.
Other reports identified the man as Jonathan Briley, an audio engineer who also worked at Windows on the World.
His identity was never confirmed but his fall needed no name to tell the truth: nearly 3,000 people died that morning, and each of them was someone.
(With inputs from USA Today)