9/11 Photographer on a Mission
Allan Tannenbaum’s camera has documented 9/11 from the moment the first plane hit. Now his photo essay 9/11 Still Killing is a shattering portrait of lives in which 9/11’s legacy lives on.
For New York photographer Allan Tannenbaum, 9/11 started with a kiss. “September 11, 2001 was a beautiful day, just stunning,” Tannenbaum recalls. He and his wife were in the fourth floor bedroom of their Duane St. loft, six blocks north of the Twin Towers. They’d been out late the night before, to a charity benefit at which one of Tannenbaum’s historic photographs was auctioned, and were just starting the day, moving about the bedroom with the south window view of the World Trade Center in the background. “We were kissing,” Tannenbaum continues, “when all of a sudden we heard the roar of jet engines, so loud we immediately knew something was wrong. It was as loud as if you were standing on the runway at JFK--just this incredible roar. Then we heard the engines rev up and the throttle accelerate. We turned to the window in time to see the tower explode in a giant fireball.”
Tannenbaum kept on shooting: views of the burning towers, the street scenes, the mayhem. Decades of working the world’s hot zones kept him at bay from the towers. “You could taste the terror, the magnitude of the danger... Then when I was shooting from Broadway, I started to hear it... a deafening ripping and roar, like a giant rending metal... and I knew: one of the towers was coming down.”
He turned to see a jet of debris several stories high shooting out of a side street. People were running from the cloud in a panic. Tannenbaum shot a few frames, then it was his turn to run. A fellow photographer caught the scene on video (left), jolting jagged footage in which screams and panic echo stridently in the sunshine only to be muted by blackness as the solid cloud of dust and debris swept over everything with hurricane force. There was total silence afterwards,” Tannenbaum recalls. “I had one thought: this is how the world ends.”
He finally came to, coughing and choking, getting his bearings as the air cleared. “I dusted off my lenses as best I could,” Tannenbaum recalls, “then I took off down Church St towards the scene... Pieces of the 107th floor of the Trade Center were lying on the street, people were staggering out of the area covered with debris... I made some more shots and had a gut feeling: if one tower can come down, then the other can too.” Retreating to a Duane Reade drug store to rinse his burning eyes with saline and to call in to his wife, his prophecy came to pass. It suddenly got dark outside, and he knew.
They were right. Tannenbaum shot hundreds of frames that day, designating him overnight as the 9/11 photographer worldwide. His 9/11 photos were broadcast across the globe, and a second stage of his career was born. “My professional life as a photographer had suffered a recent setback with the sale and dissolution of Sygma, my longtime agency,” Tannenbaum says, “but 9/11 gave me back my career”.
It was only the beginning. Over the following weeks and months, Tannenbaum’s 9/11 portfolio began to grow, as he photographed the searching families, the shattered lives and the mutilated cityscape. One Ground Zero series followed another, as the anniversaries of 9/11 began to count off--one and two, three and four. Then, as the fifth year anniversary approached, uneasy stories began to circulate--the 9/11 community was getting sick. These weren’t just the minor respiratory ailments the mainstream media had reported; there was talk of blood disorders, cancers, pulmonary fibrosis and other serious illnesses that were being seen in record numbers within the people who had worked at or near Ground Zero.
Tannenbaum jumped at the chance to break the story when his editor at Polaris suggested he do a piece on it for the upcoming fifth anniversary of 9/11. Thus launched a series which Tannenbaum considers one of the most important of his career:
9/11 Still Killing: The Hidden Victims of September 11th.
Following are excerpts from an April 2008 9/11 Health Now interview with Tannenbaum in his Duane Street studio in the phantom shadow of where the Twin Towers used to stand.
Interview with Allan Tannenbaum
Q: Describe how you started covering the 9/11 Still Killing story. What were your first steps?
AT: Well, I’d heard rumblings about the illnesses, but needed to talk to people first hand. So I went to one of the Ground Zero rallies, and started asking around. Someone said I should talk to (EMT First Responder) Bonnie Giebfried. Then Bonnie told me about (FDNY Paramedic) Deborah Reeve, who had just died, and put me in touch with Dave Reeve, Deborah’s husband. I ended up photographing the wake.
Q: So Deborah Reeve’s wake was the first image of the series?
AT: Yes. Then I photographed Vinnie Forras, Bonnie, John Sferazo, John Feal... Cesar Borgia... then one after the other... Now I have a backlog of people I need to photograph.
Q: The story is on the Time.com website. Was it in the magazine as well?
AT: No, just online. Which I found galling, because by the 5th anniversary of 9/11, I’d gotten a good number of photographs and testimonies together--we had a real story happening... So we submitted it to the agencies, but it didn’t go anywhere. New York magazine, for example--you’d think the story would be a natural for them--well, their cover story when it came out was “What if 9/11 Never Happened?” Well, I’m sorry, 9/11 did happen, and here we are showing the result, and instead they put some fictitious thing on the cover...
Q: What about Time and Newsweek?
AT: No, they ran other pieces.
Q: Has this story gotten out to the mainstream media here in the US?
AT: Not in the way I feel it should. But we keep submitting it to the agencies. An Italian magazine recently did an 8-page piece on it, but I think it’s more important to have a publication here in the US carry it, so that politicians and the public can see it...
Q: What about CNN? Didn’t they interview you on the story?
AT: They did a clip on it this past September 11th 2007 (left). But, no, I don’t feel the story has gotten it’s due in the way of exposure.
Q: Do you thing there is enough public awareness that the 9/11 Community is sick?
AT: No. Once in a while I’ll hear from someone who saw the CNN piece and they’ll say “I had no idea this was going on”.
Q: Do you believe the journalistic community is aware of the story?
AT: I think they know, but on the other hand... One newspaper used to report the stories, but have now changed their position and no longer give coverage. Another major New York paper is antagonistic to the 9/11 community--you have to wonder what their motivation is. No, The Daily News seems to be the only newspaper that reports with any consistency, but I feel they could do more.
Q: Who else needs to do more?
AT: The politicians in Washington need to do something.
Q: Do you think the politicians are not sympathetic to the 9/11 community’s plight, or is it that they just haven’t heard?
AT: Dennis Kucinich is very receptive. The New York delegation--Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, they are actively fighting for legislation. But that congressman from the April 1st 2008 hearings, (Darrell Issa) who said why should we pay all this money to the responders for them putting out a fire? It was inane.
Q: So what’s the issue?
AT: It’s about money... even though the money is there. There’s a billion dollars--the Captive Insurance Fund--the government has spent $100 million on attorneys fighting these claims. Well, this $100 million could have gone a long way to help the community--to help people losing their homes, who are disabled from 9/11 and can’t pay their bills. It’s an absolute disgrace.
Q: As someone who lived through 9/11 themselves, you must identify strongly with this community...
AT: Well... I think anyone who experienced 9/11 and the horrors of that day, and saw with their own eyes what people went through... then yes, we can identify. Anyone you meet, whether they be a First Responder or victim, or someone who worked in the buildings, or a resident... you have a bond--it’s a very strong bond. For example, I’ve covered fires in the past, but I never knew any firefighters or policemen personally. Now I’m friends with many, and our common bond is 9/11.
Q: Do you have any predictions on the 9/11 heath situation? People are saying the numbers are going to explode.
AT: It’s going to get worse. We’re already seeing blood cancers and leukemia from exposure to toxins such as benzene from the jet fuel--this can happen over a short period of time. But a lot of these toxicity diseases have a long latency period. Lung cancers, or solid tissue cancers can take decades to develop. Many people who aren’t yet sick will be sick, and those that are sick are going to get sicker.
Q: What about the people who have occupational exposure? The people who returned to work in the area?
AT: That’s part of the story--the clean-up crews. A lot of them are ill now and unable to work. Like (130 Liberty St. cleaner) Mercedes Burgos (left) in the story. There are residents as well that are sick; kids too--the asthma rate among kids who were exposed is much higher than normal, for example.
Q: Isn’t there a student from the Stuyvesant School who is featured in the story?
A: Right--Amit Friedlander, (below, left) who developed Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The school is just south of the area where they filled the barges with Ground Zero debris that went to the Fresh Kills dump. They loaded up the barges right in front of the school’s ventilation system.
Q: Do you think the city of New York changed on 9/11?
AT: Absolutely. It was devastating--and we haven’t recovered. We’ve still got this gaping hole in the ground, this endless construction... It’s very sad, we’re always reminded of it. Psychologically, it’s affected us a lot. If something like this can happen, then anything can happen. It’s made people uneasy, insecure. Every time I hear a low-flying plane, I get a physical reaction.
Q: That sounds like a PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) reaction. Have you been screened for PTSD?
AT: I went to Mt. Sinai and got tested. They said I was fine.
Q: Do you feel that your long career as a photojournalist covering many of the world’s most intense conflicts has allowed you to remain psychologically unscathed by 9/11?
A: Let’s just say that by this point, I have a pretty realistic view of life and death.
Q: Do you see a lot of hopelessness in the 9/11 Community due to all the hardship and illness?
A: I see a lot of hopelessness, but I see a lot of strength. But one of the worst things in this community besides losing health and income is the loss of identity. Firefighters, cops, people who loved their jobs... One firefighter I met says he dreams every week of driving the truck. They can’t do their jobs anymore, so they feel useless. Their motivation, their raison d’etre, is gone.
Q: You have over forty-five WTC-9/11 portfolios as of March 2008 on your website. Do you plan to keep going with this subject?
AT: I believe 9/11 Still Killing is one of the most important things I’ve ever done. It’s linked to the rebuilding and renewal of NYC that I’m covering, but the human element is far more important. So I’m going to keep doing it as much as I can--getting the story and the pictures out.
Q: However long it takes? The story doesn’t look like it’s going to go away.
AT: It’s an ongoing story, one I’m going to continue to document. This is a historical record of people’s lives. I put it this way: for many members of this community, every day is 9/11...
Story and interview Claire Calladine.
All photos (except left) by Allan Tannenbaum.
For more information on Allan Tannenbaum’s photography and his photo series 9/11 Still Killing, his coverage of 9/11 and post-9/11 events, plus historic photos of the World Trade Center, visit www.sohoblues.com
