Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Friend does more than articulate what we intuitively feel in viewing these pictures....He also acts as reporter. He tracks down the men and women who took the historic stills and tells their stories." Chicago Tribune
Review
"A brief review can't do justice to Watching the World Change, a lucid, thoughtful and wide-ranging book. In truth, Friend's excellent writing conveys more of the truth of the day than photographs can." Garrison Keillor, New York Times
Review
"A fast-paced chronicle of that chaotic week as seen from those behind the lens." Wall Street Journal
Review
"Watching the World Change is saved by its author never losing sight of the human lives lost or otherwise altered by the dreadful events of that late summer day." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Much has been written about 9/11, but David Friend shows it to us as no one has before." Anderson Cooper
Review
"At last we have a book that looks steadily through the lens and does not flinch, but which cancels voyeurism by its care and measure and by the multiplicity of its perspectives." Christopher Hitchens
Review
"An informed and intimate account...of one of the worst days in American history." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of theYear
The attack on the World Trade Center was the most watched event in human history. And the footage seen of that day came not only from TV cameras, but also from workers, tourists, and passersby, each of whose lives would change dramatically when confronted with the sight of the attacks.
David Friend has uncovered the stories behind those images--from the street-level shots of the north tower crumbling to firefighters raising the American flag over the rubble. In Watching the World Change, he traces the images back to their sources and charts their impact over the next seven days. That week was the beginning of a digital age, a moment when all the advances in television, photography, and the Web converged on a single event. A brilliant chronicle of how we process disaster.
Synopsis
The attack on the World Trade Center was the most watched event in human history. And the footage recorded that day came from myriad perspectives—from TV cameras and tourist snapshots to photographer Thomas E. Franklins iconic image of three firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero. David Friend explains how that week marked a phase change in the digital age, a moment when all the advances in television, photography, and the Web converged on a single event. A brilliant chronicle of how we process disaster, Watching the World Change is “an elegant and moving examination of the photographic legacy of that day in history….Brings meaning to a terrible time” (New Orleans Times-Picayune).
Includes the exclusive story of the French filmmaker brothers who chronicled the attacks and survived the collapse of the towers.
About the Author
David Friend,
Vanity Fair's editor of creative development, was the directory of photography for
Life magazine. He won an Emmy (with
Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter) for the documentary
9/11, about two French documentary makers drawn into the disaster. He lives in New Rochelle, New York.