Why Elton John Bought 9/11’s Most Controversial {Photograph}

“The Falling Man” is probably the most controversial {photograph} to have emerged from the September 11, 2001 assault on New York City’s World Trade Center.

Taken by Richard Drew of the Associated Press – and visible at this link – the picture reveals a person falling headfirst alongside the aspect 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.

When the picture ran within the New York Times and different papers throughout the nation the next day, many readers complained and accused the publications of exploiting the unknown man’s dying.

Read More: How Classic Rock Responded to the 9/11 Terror Attacks

Many images have been taken of the estimated 200 or extra individuals who died after leaping or falling from the inescapable flame and smoke-filled higher flooring of the Twin Towers in the course of the assault.

However, after the offended response to the publication of “The Falling Man,” newspapers stopped sharing these photos.

“Photographs of the so-called jumpers have been rendered taboo,” famous Susie Linfield of New York journal, “vilified as an insult to the dead and an unbearably brutal shock to the living.”

Elton John noticed issues otherwise. He spent two years working to amass a print of
“The Falling Man” for his assortment of well-known images, which numbered almost 8,000 as of 2016.

“It’s the most beautiful image of something so tragic,” John instructed CBS News at the moment. “It’s probably one of the most perfect photographs ever taken. It’s not a shot that a lot of people probably would want to hang on their wall. And we’ve never hung it on our wall.”

During the interview, John was clear that he had no reservations about gathering images of such tragic moments.

“No, because this is an historical event. It’s as important as the naked girl running down the road [in] Vietnam [1972’s “The Napalm Girl“], and I have that. The little boy in Syria recently, just sitting there on the chair? I desperately want that photograph. And we’re trying to get it. It’s just important to have them.”

Who Was the Falling Man?

After a 2001 story within the Globe and Mail advised that the falling man is likely to be Noberto Hernandez, a pastry chef on the Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th ground of the North Tower, Esquire journalist Tom Junod was in a position to get hold of a number of different images of the second from Drew.

In a narrative originally published in 2003, the falling man’s darker complexion and orange t-shirt led Junod to counter – however not definitively decide – that the falling man would possibly as a substitute be Jonathan Briley, a sound engineer employed on the identical restaurant and the brother of the Village People’s authentic “G.I.,” Alex Briley.

In his personal 2021 Associated Press article, “The Falling Man” photographer Drew downplayed the significance of a selected identification.

“Though his quest proved fruitless, Junod eventually concluded, as I did, that the point was moot. For we already knew the identity of the man in the picture. He was you and me.”