This photo was taken just outside of the main part of New
York City on the 11th September 2001. The photo is of the infamous
attack on the world trade centre in which suicide bombers crashed planes into
the two buildings. This devastating event shocked the world all over. Many
pictures were taken, some shocking others tragic, however one seems to stand
out more than the others. This photo, taken by German photographer ‘Thomas
Hoepker’, proved to be highly controversial and was actually banned by the
photographer for several years.
The twin towers themselves are no longer standing in the
photo; this shows that it has been a few hours since to event happened. In the
foreground of the image (the towers are in the background) there are five
people. The first thing that strikes me as odd in this image is that not one of
these people seem to be concerned or worried about what is going on behind
them, instead they seem to be causally chatting in the warm sun just like what
many people would do on any other normal day. At closer inspection of the image
it appears that one of them, the woman in the middle, is smiling. She also
seems to be laid back, almost like she is sunbathing, this adds to the idea
that they don’t care about what is happening.
Ignoring the background it seems that this photo was taken
on any warm sunny day. The sun is reflecting off the water, there are two big
trees that have been planted either side of a nice viewing point of the city.
These five people are all sat in a circle; one person has their bike while
another seems to have brought a chair. It looks as if it is very warm and sunny
as the shadows are thick and the image is bright. However this is not a normal
day and so it appears that they are really inconsiderate about what is going
on.
Not a single one of these people are even looking in the
direction of the incident, this gives the impression that they are denying its
existence. This might mean that this event was so bad for them that they can’t
bare to think about it and so try to act like nothing is wrong, this however is
quite a stretch as there is little evidence to support this theory.
In conclusion it appears that even though a disastrous event
is taking place, people just carry on with life like nothing has happened. This
isn’t the first time mankind have done such a thing as it happens all of the
time in war. however I believe this image is absolutely shocking as it seems
these people didn’t care at all about the tragic events that occurred on the 11th
of September 2001.
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