So a happy looking photo about 9/11 and this guy is everywhere! Reporters want to interview him and journalists want to write about him, why? It’s just a photo right?
Wrong! It’s a photo showing people ignoring the attack of the twin towers, a photo showing that people didn’t care. But why should they? Life goes on after all. This was the message the photograph was showing to the general public, and they were not happy. America couldn’t have a picture like this floating about when families were grieving over the death of thousands of people that lost their lives on that catastrophic day, they couldn’t have people thinking it’s no ‘big deal’. But it wasn’t until 2006 when the photo made its first appearance and caused uproar, 5 years later from the attacks on the towers, was it still too early to post a picture of something like this? Time’s moved on, but the pain and suffering will always remain when mentioning this delicate topic.
Now to meet the man who created all this commotion, Thomas Hoepker, a German photographer born in 1936, he lived and breathed photography! Starting at the age of 16, Hoepker received a camera given to him by his grandfather who was just as into photography as he was, the moment the 9x12 glass plate camera touched Hoepker’s hand, was the moment his career started. Earning a living at school by selling photos to classmates, Hoepker worked hard building up the skills and qualities to becoming a world class photographer, starting from developing photos in his kitchen, to working for one of the most respected and famous photography companies in the world, Magnum.
When the photo was taken, not much was going through his head; he needed pictures of the attack, so he shot what he could. On the day of September 11th 2001, Hoepker sat in queues of traffic, trying to get as close as he could to what is now known as Ground Zero, the radio blasted out cries and screams of civilians in the background of reporters all over the area and Hoepker knew that’s what he needed to capture, but it wasn’t the cries and screams he captured, it was the smiles and cheerful looks upon the faces of 5 individuals. Hoepker claims it was a ‘passing photo’ he saw the shot, took the picture and moved on, he took hundreds of pictures that day! He planned to use it in a book of photographs from that day, but thought it was too confusing to add, so decided to leave it aside for the time being, it wasn’t until he decided to hold an exhibition of his work that he decided to add it, he claimed ‘the colour slide from Brooklyn suddenly seemed to jump at me. Now, distanced from the actual event, the picture seemed strange and surreal. It asked questions but provided no answers’. So he published it.
Thomas Hoepker is a remarkable photographer; his images show love, life, pain and anger, yet every photo is still beautiful. Despite what people say about his work being artistic, Hoepker claims he’s not an ‘art maker, but an image maker’ which to me make his work that much more impressive! With every photo he has taken, you can see the emotion of every individual and begin to picture what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling and what’s going on in their life. He’s proud of his photos, and he deserves to be as they really are amazing, but unfortunately when most people mention Hoepkers name, the first thing that pop into their mind is ‘that shocking 9/11 photo’.
Now 5 years on from when the photo was released, there have been reports, interviews and even books about this picture, how one photo can gain so much attention from a group of friends smiling on such a perfect day, which ended up being one of the worst. It makes you think, will people ever move on from such a devastating event? Will people understand you’re allowed to smile at a time of darkness, and still feel devastated and distraught? These are the questions Hoepker created when his right finger softly pressed the button on his camera, 10 years ago. 
