The Falling Man

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For the Don DeLillo novel, see Falling Man (novel).

The Falling Man

The Falling Man is a photograph taken by Richard Drew at 9:41:15 a.m., on September 11, 2001. It shows a man falling from the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City. The subject was one of the people (dubbed "jumpers" by the press) trapped on the upper floors of the building who apparently chose to jump to certain death rather than die from the heat and smoke. At first, the faller was identified by Globe and Mail reporter Peter Cheney as being a man by the name of Norberto Hernandez, but when the family looked at the whole series of pictures (there were approximately a dozen images), it was clear that it was not him.

"9/11: The Falling Man" became a documentary about the picture and the story behind it. It made its debut on March 16, 2006, on the British television station Channel 4 broadcast. It later made its North American premiere on Canada's CBC Newsworld on September 6, 2006. The program suggests that the man in the photograph is Jonathan Briley, a sound engineer who worked at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the North Tower.

The powerful and controversial photograph provoked feelings of anger, particularly in the United States, in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The photo ran only once in many American newspapers because they received critical and angry letters from readers who felt the photo was exploitative, voyeuristic, and disrespectful of the dead. This led to the media's self-censorship of the photograph, preferring instead to print photos of acts of heroism and sacrifice.

Drew commented about the varying reactions, saying, "This is how it affected people's lives at that time, and I think that is why it's an important picture. I didn't capture this person's death. I captured part of his life. This is what he decided to do, and I think I preserved that." ^[1] 9/11: The Falling Man ends suggesting that this picture was not a matter of the identity behind the man, but how he symbolized the events of 9/11.

I hope we're not trying to figure out who he is and more figure out who we are.
—Jonathan Briley's elder sister, Gwendolyn, 9/11: The Falling Man