According to a write-up, "After an assignment in the Dominican Republic, news photographer Thomas E. Franklin was back to his usual territory, the New York-New Jersey area.
"His day began at 8 a.m. 11 September 2001 at the offices of his employer, The Bergen Record of Passaic, New Jersey. An editor told him a plane hit the World Trade Center. Franklin, who had been on the paper's staff since 1993, headed down the New Jersey Turnpike to Jersey City. He heard about the crash of United Flight 175 into the WTC south tower on the radio. "
Around 4 or 5 p.m., Franklin and another photographer were taking a break when three firefighters caught his eye.
Franklin remembers, "I would I say was 150 yards away when I saw the firefighters raising the flag. They were standing on a structure about 20 feet above the ground. This was a long lens picture: there was about 100 yards between the foreground and background, and the long lens would capture the enormity of the rubble behind them."
According tot the artricle, "The three firefighters, William Eisengrein, George Johnson and Daniel McWilliams, had discovered a US flag on the back of a yacht inside a boat slip at the World Financial Center. They took the banner and decided to raise it as a statement of loyalty and resilience."
"I made the picture standing underneath what may have been one of the elevated walkways, possibly the one that had connected the World Trade plaza and the World Financial Center. As soon as I shot it, I realized the similarity to the famous image of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima," ranklin recalled.
"This was an important shot. It told more than just death and destruction. It said something to me about the strength of the American people and of thse firemen having to battle the unimaginable."
At the end of 2001, the Associated Press Managing Editors Association and Editor & Publisher magazine named it the best picture of the year. The photo was on the short list of photographs considered for the Pulitzer Prize.
In June of 2003, the "Heroes of 2001" stamp pictured above was issued by the US Postal Service using Franklin's photo.
Shown above, President George W. Bush along with the three firefighters - Franklin, Johnson, Eisengrein and McWilliams. Also in the picture are Postmaster General John Potter (left), and New York Congressman Gary Ackerman (next to President Bush).
Photographer Thomas E. Franklin is on the far right in the photo.
To read the entire article, click here.
To visit the 9/11 Memorial Museum website, click here.
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