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“The Falling Man” is the most controversial photograph to have emerged from the September 11, 2001<\/a> attack on New York City’s World Trade Center.<\/p>\n Taken by Richard Drew of the Associated Press – and visible at this link<\/a> – the photo shows a man falling headfirst along the side of the soon-to-be-demolished 110-floor North Tower, momentarily captured in an incongruously serene pose that belies the utter surrounding chaos and his imminent demise.<\/p>\n When the photo ran in the New York Times<\/em> and other papers across the country the following day, many readers complained and accused the publications of exploiting the unknown man’s death.<\/p>\n Read More: How Classic Rock Responded to the 9\/11 Terror Attacks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Many photographs were taken of the estimated 200 or more people who died after jumping or falling from the inescapable flame and smoke-filled upper floors of the Twin Towers during the attack.<\/p>\n However, after the angry response to the publication of “The Falling Man,” newspapers stopped sharing these images.<\/p>\n “Photographs of the so-called jumpers have been rendered taboo,” noted Susie Linfield of New York<\/a> magazine, “vilified as an insult to the dead and an unbearably brutal shock to the living.”<\/p>\n Elton John<\/a> saw things differently. He spent two years working to acquire a print of \u201cIt\u2019s the most beautiful image of something so tragic,\u201d John told CBS News<\/a>\u00a0at that time. \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of the most perfect photographs ever taken. It\u2019s not a shot that a lot of people probably would want to hang on their wall. And we\u2019ve never hung it on our wall.\u201d<\/p>\n During the interview, John was clear that he had no reservations about collecting photographs of such tragic moments.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, because this is an historical event. It\u2019s as important as the naked girl running down the road [in] Vietnam [1972’s “The Napalm Girl<\/a>“], and I have that. The little boy in Syria recently, just sitting there on the chair<\/a>? I desperately want that photograph. And we\u2019re trying to get it. It\u2019s just important to have them.\u201d<\/p>\n After a 2001 story in the Globe and Mail <\/a>suggested that the falling man might be Noberto Hernandez, a pastry chef at the Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th floor of the North Tower, Esquire<\/em> journalist Tom Junod was able to obtain several other photographs of the moment from Drew.<\/p>\n
“The Falling Man” for his collection of famous photographs, which numbered nearly 8,000 as of 2016.<\/p>\nWho Was the Falling Man?<\/h3>\n