Raising the Flag at Ground Zero
Photographer: Thomas E. Franklin
Date: September 11, 2001
Location: Ground Zero, New York City, USA
Thomas E. Franklin, a staff photographer for The Record (Bergen County, NJ), photographed three New York City firefighters — Dan McWilliams, George Johnson, and Billy Eisengrein — raising a worn American flag found in the wreckage at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. The image, taken at around 5:00 PM, was widely compared to Joe Rosenthal's Iwo Jima photograph. The image went viral in the days following the attacks and became one of the most reproduced images of 9/11. A proposed bronze statue based on the photograph became controversial when the flag-raisers' ethnicities were changed to represent a more ethnically diverse trio, which was ultimately not built. The original photograph was transmitted by the Associated Press and published on front pages around the world.
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