Images of 9/11 deepen the focus of the experience

By Chris Heide
UW News Lab

David Friend, an award-winning journalist and editor for Vanity Fair, recently visited the UW Communication Department recently to discuss his book, “Watching the World Change: The stories behind the images on 9/11.” The event was sponsored by The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and held at the Simpson Center for the Humanities.

Friend’s book displays and discusses images that were taken by numerous citizens, all of whom had first-hand accounts of the September 11 th terrorist attacks.

In discussing his work, Friend was quick to explain the significance of these visual images to our societal understanding of 9/11. “Everybody has a personal narrative about September 11th, and everybody should, because of our germane connection to the event,” Friend said.

Furthermore, the photographs and video that was shot of the terrorist attacks helped to further that sense of human commonality. “We all share the same set of images from 9/11. About 2.5 million people saw the same thing at the same time,” said Friend.

For the erstwhile foreign correspondent, writing this book was important because it helped to describe a recent social pheomoenon. Because much of our current technology gives us instant access to a plethora of information, the world was instantly able to view the events of 9/11 as it unfolded in real time. The instantaneous nature of these images helped to further the link of commonality. Friend links the ability to produce instantaneous images to two recent developments: the digital camera and global satellite networks.

Friend’s collection of photos depicts an array of personal experiences. Many of the images were taken by regular citizens, not photojournalists. Therein lies the true link to the common human experience.

Friend’s work is rife with brutally stark images. No emotion is spared. For example, Friend covers the experience of Jules Nauduet, a documentary film maker who, with his brother, was living with a group of New York firefighters on 9/11. He was able to shoot a great deal of the immediate carnage of that day with his handheld camera. Another photographer, Patrick Witty, took a picture of a group of onlookers as they watched one of the towers fall. Many more anecdotes exist within the book, each covering a slightly different slice of the 9/11 experience. Many images also juxtaposed life with death – for example, the silhouette of a pregnant woman in the foreground framed a mass of frenzied street activity beyond it.

According to Friend, people who experience trauma often look for ways to validate the fact that they actually experienced that crisis. The camera can act as a cathartic shield for journalists (and others), as it allows them to maintain a balance that keeps them emotionally engaged with their subject without becoming too overwrought and empathic.

Friend also stressed that journalists often feel guilt about not feeling more emotional over the subjects they cover. But having this detachment enables journalists to view images and situations firsthand that many people might not be able to do.

Friend also articulated the complexities of having such instantaneous access to the images of 9/11. “In our modern ages, we are so bombarded by images, it is hard to separate actual memories from these types of photographs,” he said.

Although at first there was an immediate feeling of national solidarity following the attacks, the constant retelling of events weakened those feelings of commonality. The solidarity can become lost in translation. These images help to keep the events of that day as clear as possible, Friend said.

He added that the bombardment of visual images on 9/11 helped the country, and the world, to develop a greater sense of the truth about the events surrounding that day. Although media coverage has become more restrained in dealing with 9/11, the initial saturation was cathartic and appropriate, he said. “If more images of the war within Iraq had been shown earlier, then there would have been an earlier anti-war movement. Saturation equals manipulation.”

Many of the images that originated on 9/11 caused numerous conspiracy theories to surface, one of which blames the Bush administration for the attacks. “The Bush administration was incompetent and has blood on their hands. However, incompetence is not proof of conspiracy,” said Friend.

All in all, instantaneous images change the way people experience history. They are able to experience events as they unfold and in the manner in which they unfold. According to Friend, “Sometimes, you just have to show how horrible it actually was.”

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(CHRIS HEIDE is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.)