[chris]

This photograph captured the hearts of so many on September 11, 2001. There is something almost rebellious in the man's posture, as though once faced with the inevitability of death, he decided to get on with it; as though he were a missile, a spear, bent on attaining his own end. He is, fifteen seconds past 9:41 a.m. EST, the moment the picture is taken, in the clutches of pure physics, accelerating at a rate of thirty-two feet per second squared. He will soon be traveling at upwards of 150 miles per hour, and he is upside down. In the picture, he is frozen; in his life outside the frame, he drops and keeps dropping until he disappears.


Richard Drew the photographer is no stranger to history; he knows it is something that happens later. In the actual moment history is made, it is usually made in terror and confusion, and so it is up to people like him -- paid witnesses -- to have the presence of mind to attend to its manufacture. The photographer has that presence of mind and has had it since he was a young man. When he was twenty-one years old, he was standing right behind Bobby Kennedy when Bobby Kennedy was shot in the head. His jacket was spattered with Kennedy's blood, but he jumped on a table and shot pictures of Kennedy's open and ebbing eyes, and then of Ethel Kennedy crouching over her husband and begging photographers -- begging him -- not to take pictures.

[Sharon]

A very upsetting picture and to think 200 people chose to jump rather than being burned alive.
Evil fucking Islam c****

[güttsfükk]

I remember the British press were all over a pic of a fireman going up the stairs in WTC taken by someone escaping.

[huskie]

Originally Posted by sadakohere ↗

Evil fucking Islam c****

I wasnt aware George Bush was islamic.

[termon]

too sad to watch , even harder to be in his shoes or wings!!! saddest shit ever happened in the States . never again .

[Beautiful Liar]

was this man ever indentified? just wondering...

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by his wife ↗

was this man ever indentified? just wondering...

Five years after the attacks, Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old employee of the Windows on the World restaurant, was identified by chef Michael Lomonaco as The Falling Man. Briley was a sound engineer who lived in Mount Vernon, New York and worked in the North Tower restaurant.

According to the film, the victim was initially identified by his brother in the morgue by the victim's hands and shoes.

Lomonaco claims that he was able to identify Briley by his clothes and body-type. In one of the pictures, The Falling Man's clothes were blown away, revealing an orange undershirt similar to the shirt that Briley wore to work almost every day.

His older sister, Gwendolyn, asserted he was wearing that shirt on the day of the attack. She told reporters of The Sunday Mirror, "When I first looked at the picture...and I saw it was a man - tall, slim - I said, 'If I didn't know any better, that could be Jonathan.'"

A charity has been set up for Briley's family, and many news programs have aired his story as being the one of The Falling Man.
However, the identity of The Falling Man has never been officially confirmed.

[big raymie]

RIP whoever you are my friend

[MrCorpse]

i saw a tv show with other snapshots of his fall... he was struggling and flailing about... this picture gives the illusion of a calm free-fall... but when you see a few pictures it shows a very different moment in time.

[bigerch85]

i think faced with the choice of being burned alive or jump i would take the latter too,i remember that day like it was yesterday.i was at work when we all got called into office and showed the tv.couldnt believe my eyes,those poor poeple went to work that day and never returned.R.I.P
Can any of you guys remeber where you were that day