RETRO FILES / BILL BIGGART'S FINAL 9-11 PHOTOGRAPH

 

“The skeletal façade of the South Tower (2 World Trade Center) juts skyward amid dust and debris in Lower Manhattan, minutes after its collapse on September 11, 2001. At center looms the fire-damaged 7 World Trade Center, which would fall later that afternoon. This image, taken by photojournalist Bill Biggart, was the last frame he captured before being crushed by the North Tower’s collapse.”

In his final moments on September 11, 2001, freelance photojournalist Bill Biggart captured a haunting image of the attack on the World Trade Center. The 54-year-old was killed when the North Tower collapsed, making him the only professional photographer to die while documenting the tragedy. After the first tower fell, Biggart had spoken to his wife on the phone and told her he was safe "because he was with the firemen."

However, his drive to document the historical event led him closer to the North Tower, where he was looking through his camera viewfinder when the building came down. 

Four days later, responders recovered his body from the debris. Beside him were his cameras and a single, miraculously preserved digital flash card. The card contained nearly 150 images, including his final photograph, time-stamped at 10:28:24 a.m., just seconds before his death. Biggart's work stands as a powerful legacy of his courage and dedication to capturing the truth. 

Here’s what the photo shows in detail: 

• Foreground, right side: The twisted steel remains "tridents" of the South Tower facade, still standing like ribs jutting into the air. The tridents were part of the exterior lower sections of the outer walls that survived the collapse and became one of the most iconic images from Ground Zero. 

• Middle of the frame: Thick smoke and dust are pouring into the street canyons. The light shaft through the smoke is sunlight reflecting off the surviving high-rises nearby, giving the scene its eerie glow. 

• Left side of frame: Heavily damaged buildings along Vesey Street, including 7 World Trade Center and the Verizon Building. Some of their facades are blasted open from falling debris. 

• Background center: The dark rectangular tower is the damaged facade of 7 World Trade Center (which itself collapsed later in the afternoon). 

• Atmosphere: Everything is cloaked in a dust cloud of pulverized concrete, asbestos, glass, and smoke, reducing visibility and giving the scene a sepia-gray cast.

More on Bill Biggart (1947-2001):

The path that eventually led Bill Biggart to the World Trade Center the morning of 9/11 took him through Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Berlin, and deep into the heart of racism in his own country. He never stopped moving until the end. 

As a spot news photographer, Bill chose to cover stories that most interested him, not the ones an editor selected. He focused on presenting the minority side – the Palestinians in the Middle East, the Catholic/IRA “troubles” in Ireland, and the issues of Native Americans, blacks and gays in America. 

 “With a press pass around his neck and a camera bag over his shoulder, in the middle of a cross fire – Bill was in heaven” 

                                                -- Wendy Doremus, Bill's wife.

Bill was born in Berlin in 1947, the pacifist son of a conservative U.S. Army officer. Raised in a rambunctious family of 12 children, Bill grew up learning to express his opinion - loudly and demonstrably if needed. 

Politics was often a heated topic of conversation and it affected his life at an early age. His family was forced to leave Berlin on one of the last trains before the Berlin Wall was erected.

In New York, Bill worked as a commercial photographer, while also pursuing his passion for photojournalism. In 1973, he went to Wounded Knee to cover the American Indian protest movement. He somehow got past the FBI perimeter and was captured by the besieged protestors who assumed he was a federal agent. His gift for gab got him released, but some of his film was confiscated. 

In 1985, Bill received his first press card and immediately closed his studio. He left commercial photography behind and entered the world of black and white photojournalism. He hated color and only came back to it when he grudgingly accepted digital photography methods, colleagues said.

Over the years following, Bill photographed racism in New York, the KKK in the South, the Palestinian uprising and refugee camps in Israel, the life of people in Northern Ireland, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

He was one of the first members of a cooperative photo agency, Impact Visuals, which was devoted to issues of social change and alternative news. “If he had left when he promised to, for the rest of his life he would have been bitching about how we made him miss the photo of the second tower falling” - Bill Biggart, Jr. 

Aside from photography, Bill loved gardening, planting street trees in New York, sailing his boat, listening to Yankee games with his sons, and living in the center of what he considered the greatest city on earth. 

He died there at the age of 54. A life fully, fiercely and passionately lived. Bill is survived by his wife, Wendy Doremus, and three children – Bill Jr., Kate and Peter. 

That Horrible Day 

It was a beautiful day in New York. The morning calm was broken by a passing taxi driver who yelled out that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Bill ran home, grabbed three cameras (two film, one digital) and began heading toward the WTC. Walking and shooting as he went, he moved quickly downtown toward the smoke and flames.

 “I’m safe, I’m with the firemen.” 

As his pictures indicate, Bill was eventually shooting straight up at the burning buildings. He was not far from the first tower when it fell. After being overtaken by the dust cloud, he photographed the devastation all around him. Wendy, his wife, reached Bill on his cell phone shortly after the first tower fell. He told her not to worry, he would meet her in 20 minutes at his studio. “I’m safe,” he assured her, “I’m with the firemen.” It was the last time they ever spoke. 

 About 20 minutes later, the second tower collapsed. Bill’s body was found in the rubble four days later. His camera equipment was damaged, but his friend and fellow photographer Chip East was able to extract the films and flash card, which contained Bill’s final images. The last photograph was time-stamped at 10:28:24, seconds before the second tower collapsed.