Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Pure Conjecture

I do not subscribe to The New York Times, or their Times Select pay for this article service, so I was unable to read Frank Rich’s column Whatever Happened to the America of 9/12 which was published on September 10th of this year.

Slate publishes a portion of Rich’s words, concerning a photograph taken by Thomas Hoepker on 9/11, purporting to show indifference among a group of five individuals who are sitting along the waterfront across from the WTC as the buildings burn.  Per Slate, the photograph was not published in conjunction with Rich’s piece, but the photograph is viewable via the Slate piece.  The photograph is also published in a new book by David Friend, titled Watching the World Change - The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11.

Here’s what Rich has to say about the photo, as obtained from the Slate piece,

Seen from the perspective of 9/11’s fifth anniversary, Mr. Hoepker’s photo is prescient as well as important—a snapshot of history soon to come. What he caught was this: Traumatic as the attack on America was, 9/11 would recede quickly for many. This is a country that likes to move on, and fast. The young people in Mr. Hoepker’s photo aren’t necessarily callous. They’re just American. In the five years since the attacks, the ability of Americans to dust themselves off and keep going explains both what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong on our path to the divided and dispirited state the nation finds itself in today.

Take a look at the photo via the link to Slate in this post.  Can you actually arrive at any conclusion regarding the psyches of the individuals in the photograph?  Or, are you only able to ascertain that the individuals photographed are sitting on the waterfront across from the WTC, and that one individual has a bicycle, and one is sitting on a chair and apparently has a tattoo on the small of the back, and one individual is wearing shorts, at least three of the individuals appear to have on sunglasses, and there is apparently a breeze blowing the smoke from the burning towers in their general direction, amongest other minutia?

I am uncertain if David Friend’s book provides the story behind this particular image, because I have not read it, maybe it does.  Maybe Friend interviewed the individuals in the photograph and ascertained that the group was simply soaking up the sun, on an extremely eventful day, discussing their upcoming weekend plans, or some new and upcoming artist, or the merits of riding a bicycle to the waterfront on a beautiful September day, but I rather doubt it.

Link to Slate piece via Fred Lapides site GoodShit.

UPDATE:

David Plotz, writing over at Slate, also has a few words to say about Frank Rich’s conjectured interpretation of the photograph taken by David Hoepker.  Plotz’s piece is titled Frank Rich is Wrong About That 9/11 Photograph

Posted by John Venlet on 09/12 at 06:56 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages