“I find the skyline is organic and reflects our collective history,” says Photojournalist Jennifer S. Altman to the Phoblographer in an interview. She says this specifically in response to my question about what she feels about a New York without the Twin Towers. “It ebbs and flows and grows as we do. My parents’ apartment has a view overlooking the Manhattan skyline, and I love it.” Jennifer is a fellow Native New Yorker from the Bronx and, on 9/11, captured a few very important images. In her mind, when the towers fell, the skyline evolved again. But no matter what, she feels peaceful looking at the skyline.
All images Jennifer S. Altman. Used with permission. For more, please check out her website.
“Sometimes I think about seeing the smoke billowing from the fallen towers. The 9/11 Museum, with the footprints of the buildings, and the Freedom Tower that took its place, changed our perspective again. In rebuilding our community, it showed resilience and healing. But our history is cumulative. And our skyline doesn’t always change because of positive occurrences, sometimes they are negative like what we saw on 9/11. It doesn’t make me love my city any less though.”
Jennifer S. Altman
Since 9/11, Jennifer still sees the images she made very clearly in her mind — stating that it’s almost like it was yesterday. She can still feel the expressions on people’s faces, the chaos, and then the silence. She was driving to an assignment when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Like any other working photojournalist, she immediately got to work and photographed what was happening.
“I remember thousands of people running towards me, to save themselves from this tragedy, and I was the only one running in the opposite direction towards the danger,” she recalls. “It makes you reflect on what kind of person you are. I was one of the first photojournalists on the scene.” Around her were folks in deep sadness with tears as well as those who were brave and tried to help. This is around the time Jennifer shot her iconic image.
As both buildings raged with fire, a woman in red, whose expression of terror I can never forget, ran towards me. This photo encapsulated so much of the devastation unfolding in front of us. I later found her. Her name is Rose Parascandola and she was in her office that morning where she worked in the WTC. I have photographed Rose many times over the years. She became an important part of my life on that day. Every time we meet, I think about how far we have come. Many people were being brought to stretchers, they were bleeding, in shock and many were burnt. I remember the compassion as a woman who had burned 80% of her body was helped by EMT’s and the people who brought her to the ambulance.
Jennifer S. Altman
The second plane flew over Ms. Altman’s head as she was running. She remembers the roars of the engine and just how close it felt. When the second plane hit the towers, the sound hit Jen very deeply. In fact, for a long time afterward, the sound of planes there were close by would stop her in her tracks for a moment.
Jennifer remembers seeing people trapped on the roofs and realized that there was no way that they’d be able to get down. Through it all, she kept shooting. Her images were of pieces of the towers falling to the city streets, bodies coming down, and people running. A few sounds really remain with her: the thud of people hitting the ground and the first tower falling are two of the most prominent. She was standing at the foot of the World Trade Center on Church and Fulton Streets as it came down. She started to feel the ground beneath her feet lift.
“I got about a block and a half before the huge dust cloud of debris hit me from behind,” she recounts as she was even thrown down by the impact. “It was so heavy. The sky went completely black.” The air had been sucked out of her lungs, and so she had to use her shirt as a filter to try to catch her breath. Jenn didn’t want to die there, so she found a way to compose herself afterward.
“The silence in the air was almost deafening. There were no sounds of life, just crackling of fires burning. The air was so toxic.”
Jennifer S. Altman
Jen took shelter in a building and climbed the stairs to the third floor. In a bathroom, she remembers looking at herself in the mirror and being covered in white dust. She rinsed it off and remembered how much it itched her skin. Her lungs and sinuses singed, too. She called her editor to tell him she was alive and to figure out everything that was happening. “I asked him to call my family to tell them I was okay in case I wasn’t able to get in touch with them, and I called my family too.”
One woman was praying with rosary beads while others stood silent around her. After the second tower fell and she felt safe, Jen went to the hospital, where she saw almost no one except for medical staff waiting for people to come. She remembers the long lines of people waiting for pay phones.
So many of the firefighters, police, many of those people who were injured and in ambulances, located just at the foot of the buildings, never made it out alive and it was an overwhelming feeling. I had just been photographing all of those people. I looked back towards the WTC and the trees down the street were on fire, everything was covered in the debris. The smell permeating the air was of fire, burning metal, buildings, destruction and death.
Jennifer S. Altman
Jen’s editor wanted her to return to the office to develop her film and download her disks.
Years later, she’s very proud of the work she did—so much so that she shouldn’t change a thing. In fact, she felt her path took her there to be at that exact place and time. All her training throughout the years culminated in those moments. She knew she was doing important work at the time. But since that day, she has gone to all her assignments with open eyes.
“If I could give myself one piece of advice on that day, it would be to follow my intuition, to trust myself and my instincts, because it will always take me to the right place and exactly where I need to be,” Ms. Altman states. “It has helped shape me to be who I am today.”