Photog Recalls 3 Most Griping Photos Shot on One Chaotic Day on 9-11

Sometimes a roll of the dice is the difference between life and death.

Photographer Shannon Stapleton captured three of the most vivid photos to emerge from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 9-11. The first was people in Times Square aghast at the first images appearing on the jumbotron showing the Twin Towers burning. A short while later, as he made his way downtown, he bumped into a dust covered man in a suit and tie. It became known as the “man with the brief case” photo.

And finally the most iconic of all, a photo of five men carrying FDNY Chaplain Father Mychal Judge who was killed as he stood praying in the lobby of the North Tower. The photo, of the men carrying Father Judge’s limp body that would come to be known as the “American Pieta. “The slumping priest reminded people of Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of Christ.

Stapleton says he had no idea who the man in the chair was. “But I remember thinking they were giving him dignity in death.”

But it almost did not happen at all, Stapleton said.

It turns out the five men who would carry him up the steps to to St. Peter’s Church were searching for a Catholic priest to administer Last Rites. Failing to find one, they laid him out on the altar. Michael Daly who authored “The Book of Mychal: The Amazing Life and Tragic Death of Father Mychal Judge” recalled firefighters would seek temporary refuge in the church and when they spotted the beloved chaplain “tears would streak down their dust covered faces.”

Father Mychal Judge, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish on the west side, was the Catholic chaplain of the FDNY for over a decade. He was not the first to die but was the first to be identified and so was victim 0001

The North Tower had been hit at 8:46 a.m. and was still standing when the South Tower was stuck at 9:03 a.m. Debris from the collapse of the South Tower at 9:59 a.m. struck Father Judge.

None of that was known to Stapleton when he encountered five men carrying Father Mike as he was known. The men carrying Judge were FDNY firefighters Christian Waugh of Ladder Co. 5 and Zachary Vause of Engine Co. 21.; NYPD Lieutenant William Cosgrove; Kevin Allen, of the Office of Emergency Management; and John Maguire, then a civilian Goldman Sachs employee but also a West Point graduate and former Army officer.

At the time Stapleton, now a veteran photographer at Reuters was freelancing.

In fact that morning, he had a corporate gig in Midtown working for NASDQ which he said paid about five times the fee he’d command for news work. Shortly after the first plane hit, he got a call from an editor at Reuters who asked him if he could go down to the World Trade Center because a plane hit one of the towers. He said the editor did not sound like it was overly urgent and Stapleton mentioned his corporate gig at NASDQ.

Then the second plane, flight 175, hit at 9:03 a.m., 17 minutes later and Stapleton knew where he had to go. All events across the city were being cancelled as people tried to figure out what was going on and why was the country under attack and by whom.

He ventured into Times Square and captured the first iconic photo: stunned people looking at the jumbotron with pictures of smoke billowing out of the burning towers.

Then not thinking, he hopped into a subway at Times Sq. He said he was growing frustrated because the subway kept halting and he knew drama and tragedy were unfolding at the World Trade Center.

Finally at Canal Street, the subway stopped. He got out and started walking south through the debris-strewn streets.

And then he saw him. A man in a suit, covered from head to toe in grey ghost-like dust. And he was carrying a briefcase. It became his second iconic photo of the day after the Times Square shot. It would be a symbol of the day of the survivors.

Stapleton recalled, “I said, ‘are you alright man’?” But he said the man with the brief case, obviously in shock, never answered.

A short while later he encountered the quintet carrying Father Judge in a metal chair. He said initially they were brusque and wanted him to get out of the way. He managed to squeeze off nine frames.

Stapleton came by photography somewhat by accident. After graduating Ohio State, he became a ski bum in Creasted Butte, Montana.

He met his wife and said he started thinking about photography. Although he had already graduated Ohio State college in 1991, he managed to gain entry to the visual communications program at Ohio University as an incoming freshman.

He did an internship with the Detroit News in 1995-96 and then decided to drop out of the program and head east. “I moved to New York and hit the streets, getting work in 96-97.

Right before 9-11, he had sold his car and purchased one of the first digital cameras, which at the time were going for nearly $10,000. But it would come in handy on 9-11, even though the memory chip had space for only about 100 photos. After filling the memory bank, he eventually made his way back to Reuters HQ in Times Square. Someone realized that annonymous victim being carried by five men was the beloved FDNY chaplain. “I had no idea who he was, but I remembered they were giving him dignity in death.” The photo quickly went round the world.

About three or four days after that, he said he received a handwritten letter from Fr. Judge’s twin sister Dympna. “She thanked me for bringing her brother’s life to the attention of the world,” he said. He said it meant a lot. Photographers, in the heat of the moment, often do not reflect on what they are seeing. “It made me think that what I was doing might be important.”

About a year after the Mychal Judge photo, he was reunited with four of the five people who had carried the FDNY chaplain that day. “They were phenomenal. We had dinner and a great time.”

He’s 58, married with two grown children. His wife was expecting their first son at the time of 9-11. “Looking back, I feel truly blessed,” he said.