The Falling Man

Last week our class watched a documentary called “The Falling Man”. It was about a man falling from the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, during the September 11 attacks in New York City, and aboutRichard Drew’s photograph, and the  controversy surrounding it. The identity of the man is still unknown. Because of the number of jumpers (200) that day, identifying the man wasn’t going to be an easy task.  So the media searched high and low for the falling man and they came across who they thought was the man’s family. The family of the alleged falling man, Norberto Hernandez, went through at least twelve photos until one caught their eye. It turned out Norberto Hernandez was not the falling man.

Five years after the attacks, the media came across another photo, of a man by the name of Jonathan Birley, who was an employee of the Windows of the World restaurant.  He was identified  by his boss, Chef Michael Lomonaco as the falling man.

Photographer Richard Drew dealt with a lot of controversy after taking this photo. In at least two cases newspaper stories using the image have attracted criticism from readers who found the image disturbing.

Personally I think the film told a great story and followed every single RTNDA code of ethics. One of the things that I disagreed with was when the media was saying that when the people jumped out of the buildings it was because they wanted to commit suicide. That was not the case they had nowhere else to go, it was either burn up into flames or jump. In my opinion, when the people jumped to their deaths it was the only time that they felt free after the plans crashed into the buildings. For the family members of the victims when they look at those pictures of their loved ones it is the last memory that they have of them, and when they said that in the film it was very emotional and a powerful statement.If you asked me what I would do in that that situation, the truth is I don’t know.Until I am actually in that situation I would just never know.