September 13, 2006

The blogs have been abuzz about Frank Rich's assertion, in the Sunday New York Times, that a photo reproduced in my book -- taken on 9/11 by Thomas Hoepker and unpublished for four years -- seemed to embody the post-9/11 mindset: a gung-ho American impulse to get on with our lives and put terror behind us. (To see the photo, scroll down to the September 10 item, below. To read Rich's engaging column, click here.)

Now comes a similar image, sent to me by e-mail from a photographer named William Lamson. "I thought you might be interested in this photograph," Lamson writes, "as a counterpoint to the Thomas Hoepker image that Frank Rich referred to in his article. Rather than indifference, I think this picture shows the profound lack of understanding of what would happen on that day. It's hard to believe that I actually remember thinking that they would put out the fires eventually, rebuild, etc.

"Like Hoepker's image," Lamson continues, "this photograph has never been published, but not for lack of trying. I sent it to [the] NY Times, Time magazine, [The] New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly and many more. Anyway, its first public appearance is at the Brooklyn Museum's current show, 'Looking Back from Ground Zero.' The image is not on the Web site, though."

Here, with the photographer's permission, the image appears online for the first time. And the debate continues...

Photograph by William Lamson, September 11, 2001
(http://www.williamlamson.com.)

Some of yesterday's volleys can be found at Slate, Gawker, WordYard, and A Typical Joe.