2002 Photo Contest, Spot News, 2nd prize
Photographer

James Nachtwey

VII for Time

11 September, 2001

A fireman probes the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center's towers. Intense heat from fires, and the airplanes' impact, weakened the huge steel structure of the 110-storey buildings. Ash, smoke and shattered glass rained down on lower Manhattan following the destruction of the towers. For months after the September 11 attacks, rescue workers continued to work in thick dust, clearing the site, which came to be known as Ground Zero. The collapse of the twin towers, and buildings below destroyed by falling debris, killed almost 3,000 people. Initial estimates of a higher death toll fell as authorities identified who was and was not at the center that morning. The dead included more than 300 New York Fire Department members.

About the photographer

James Nachtwey

Photographs of the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement inspired him to become a photographer. While teaching himself photography, he worked as truck driver and as ...

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