World Famous Comics: Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11
Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11
By: David Friend Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 464 Publication Date: August 22, 2006 Release Date: August 22, 2006
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was the most universally observed news event in human history. That the event was so visual is owing to the people who, facing disaster, took photographs of it: imperiled office workers, horrified tourists, professional photographers risking their lives. Conceived by Osama bin Laden as the toppling of an image of America right before the world’s eyes, the tragedy swiftly came to be defined by photography, as families posted snapshots of their loved ones, police sought terrorists’ faces on security-camera videotapes, and officials recorded the devastation and identified the dead.
In Watching the World Change, David Friend tells the stories behind fifty of the images that altered our sense of our world forever—from the happenstance shots taken by bystanders as the first tower was struck to the scene of three firemen raising the Stars and Stripes at the site. He tells unforgettable stories of photographers and rescuers, victims and survivors. He shows how advances in television, digital photography, and the Internet produced an effect whereby more than two billion people saw the terrible events as they happened. He explores the controversy about whether images of 9/11 are redemptive or exploitative; and he shows how photographs help us to witness, to grieve, and finally to understand the unimaginable.
new perspective Some very interesting photos which I have not seen previously. Powerful and commanding. Much of what is available is very watered down and does not truly capture the horror of the events as do the images in this book. I would have liked more photos of this nature and a little better editing. I liked the perspective.
More Critical Judgement Needed David Friend has collected some outstanding pictures and informative interviews in Watching the World Change. And he is certainly right in his argument that the 9/11 terrorism made every citizen a potential photojournalist and went a long way to cementing digital photography's triumph over film. He is also exactly right in capturing both the global nature of the event and how quickly people became witnesses to it. In other words, his book validates the reality of nearly instantaneous global information. The book is annoying, however, because while Friend tiptoes up to, he does not really address the issue of how much of that instantaneously available information, especially graphic photographs, the public really needs to know, how such photos should be handled by both photographer and the media. He dodges any judgement and consistently refuses to criticize any photographer's behavior, no matter how boorish or sensational it might be. In short, Friend provides little help in the question of "where are the boundaries?". If this question matters, and I think it does, Friend's book -- while an excellent chronicle of who shot what with what kind of camera when -- is less than it could have been.
Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11 A very well written book in an "intimate" style, it shares many heretofore unavailable "takes" of that day. While I was surprised at the small number of photographs the book actually contained when I received it, the true value of the book is in "filling in the blanks" about the images it does discuss. This becomes apparent as the book is read. It also becomes obvious that only a limited number of images could be "explained" as thoroughly as Mr. Friend does without the book becoming exceedingly bulky.
Some of the images in "Watching..." border on the farcical - such as a pregnant German woman. Hands on her stomach in an apparent takeoff of the modeling magazines, she languidly poses for the camera as the Twin Towers smoulder in the background. Must be a German thing, this ennui regarding mass murder.
Others, such as an image of one of the "jumpers," is accutely haunting, searing itself into one's consciousness like a branding iron. Reading Mr. Friend's explanation of the image, in which the probable identity and work location of that poor soul become apparent, the horror becomes even more immediate, as we feel we "kind of know him."
For those of us who love New York but (thank God!) weren't there to witness the perdition in the flesh, Mr. Friend's book probably gives the reader the closest possible approximation of what it feels like to have lost a loved one that day. He manages to "put a face" on many of the victims. They come to seem like friends.
I love and hate this book. It's a "magic telescope" which "brings it all back" so effectively that it almost seems to stretch time backwards to that horrid day. It is masterfully done. Americans must never forget what was done to Americans that day. Mr. Friend's book should make the "Day of Infamy" comprehensible, almost immediate, to future Americans. Well Done!
Watching the World Change This book had incredible stories, I have read this book several times and continue to pick it up and read it again. The only thing that bothered me was the lack of photographs. Not enough photographs, especially ones more closely related to the stories. I have many books on this subject and felt there easliy could have been more photographs. It just frustrated me to find so few. Barring that, the stories were solidly told and that day will never be forgotten.
Public libraries and college collections strong in the social sciences will find this a hard-hitting survey. Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11 tells stories behind the now-familiar shots taken by bystanders and professionals of 9/11 events, taking the reader back through the years to dialy events experienced by families and the nation. From how some of the most harrowing photos were taken of events to their lasting effects on photographer and viewers alike, WATCHING THE WORLD CHANGE questions how modern history comes to life with images, reveals the lasting traumas of events of 9/11, and draws important connections between observer, reporter, and daily life. Public libraries and college collections strong in the social sciences will find this a hard-hitting survey.
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