The falling man

Occasionally, an artist has fate on his side. Then he succeeds in turning all his skill and experience into a sublime work. ‘The Falling Man’ by Richard Drew is such an example. He made the photo at that sunny morning of 9 September, 2001. He immortalized the falling man. That can be the beauty of still photography: if the photo works, history stops – no past, no future. The man is still falling. The eternal recurrence of the same moment. The man never hit ground zero. He is alive in an eternal now. A successful Icarus. This heroic son of Daedalus affirmed the tragic.

Tom Junod wrote a beautiful essay about the falling man in Esquire.