Full Breakdown
Photojournalists Recall September 11: From Immediate Chaos to Lasting Memory
By Drooid · · How we work
On-the-Ground Reporting on September 11
On the morning of September 11, Associated Press (AP) staff were thrust from routine assignments into a rapidly unfolding disaster. Karen Matthews, then covering New York’s primary election, left her Manhattan apartment with her three-year-old daughter and joined a team documenting the attacks. Richard Drew, who had been scheduled to photograph Fashion Week, emerged from the Chambers Street subway to find both towers ablaze and thick ash coating the streets. AP photographer Amy Sancetta, on a break after covering the U.S. Open, was directed by an editor to head downtown as the first plane struck. All three described the sudden shift from ordinary reporting to a race to capture the collapsing skyline and its human toll.
Personal Reflections of Photojournalists
Matthews recalled the moment she heard a child’s cry for school and realized “that’s when we all knew that we were under attack.” She later said that participating in the coverage helped her process the event. Drew expressed a compartmentalized response, noting that he “goes into professional photographer mode” and uses his camera as a “wall” separating him from the horror. He remains uncertain whether the falling figures he captured were jumping or forced out by fire. Sancetta described an instinctive “muscle memory” that guided her shooting, likening it to a basketball game, and later reflected on the surreal stillness that followed the towers’ collapse.
Medical Response Observations
AP journalist Larry Neumeister arrived at a nearby medical facility to find rows of empty gurneys and wheelchairs. Hospital staff prepared for a massive influx of casualties, yet “hours went by” before additional patients arrived, leading Neumeister to note that “it became clear nobody else was being brought in.” The article cites an overall death toll of almost 3,000 across the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the four hijacked aircraft.
Legacy and Ongoing Impact
A quarter-century later, the photographers’ images—particularly Drew’s “The Falling Man”—continue to shape public memory of the attacks. Many newspapers initially refused to publish the photograph out of concern for reader distress, underscoring the tension between documentation and sensitivity. The journalists themselves remain engaged with the legacy: Matthews, now retired, views her life through a “before and after” lens, while Sancetta displays her front-page photograph of the burning towers as a reminder of the day’s “nightmare” reality.
Verbatim Quotes
- “That’s when we all knew that we were under attack,” — Karen Matthews
- “I do think it helped to be part of telling the story of what happened,” — Karen Matthews
- “I don’t know whether they were jumping or they got forced out by the fire,” — Richard Drew, who also covered the 1968 shooting of Robert F
- “When I’m in a situation like September 11th, I go into professional photographer mode and I concentrate on whatever’s happening in front of me,” — Richard Drew, who also covered the 1968 shooting of Robert F
- “It became clear nobody else was being brought in,” — Larry Neumeister, time AP journalist