From Manhattan to Kabul: ‘falling men’ reawaken old traumas

On September 11, 2001, an Associated Press photographer Richard Drew captured a man falling from the Twin Towers.

The photograph was called The Falling Man. The subject of the image was trapped on the upper floors of the North Tower and either fell searching for safety or jumped to escape the fire and smoke. The photograph was taken at 9:41:15 a.m. on the day of the attacks.

The Falling Man taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York. Picture: AP

The photographer has noted that, in at least two cases, newspaper stories commenting on the image have attracted a barrage of criticism from readers who found the image “disturbing”.

“On a day of mass tragedy, Falling Man is one of the only widely seen pictures that shows someone dying,” said Time magazine.

Twenty years later, on August 16, people at the Kabul airport captured a similar image of a falling man from a C-17.

A man falls from a C-17 as it takes off from Kabul during the US evacuation of Afghanistan.

Hundreds of Afghans rushed to the Hamid Karzai Airport after the Taliban took over the country. People tried to forcibly enter planes. According to AFP, at least five people were killed in the chaos.

Videos circulating on social media showed three people falling off an aircraft while trying to cling on as they took off.

US troops fired shots into the air as people crowded onto the tarmac in the hope of catching a flight.

from SAMAA https://ift.tt/37SNprH