Pondering the Power of Pictures

It’s the middle of September 2001 as I write this, at the endof the one of the worst weeks in American history. Like many Americans,indeed many in the world, I’ve been watching a lot of televisionand constantly checking news websites since I first got word of theattacks on New York and Washington. I’ve become a virtualprisoner of the media for these agonizing days, waiting for answersthat are slow in coming.

It’s a common pattern in times of crisis, of course: Networknews organizations take over the airwaves in an attempt to satisfyinsatiable public curiosity and demonstrate unattainable acumen. Theydeliver news as quickly as possible, whether it’s newsworthy ornot, accurate or not, and fill in the gaps with video footage,analysis, recap, hypotheses, speculation, interviews, and more recap.That has happened this time, as well.

Yet, this crisis is so different in so many ways. Most profoundly,we’ve watched a human catastrophe of unbridled proportion unfold,one that is simply beyond the bounds of rational thought. The sheermagnitude of the terrorist attacks has yielded many more details thanusual at every level, whether physical, tactical, or emotional. And,like never before, so many of those different perspectives have beencaptured by timely camerapeople, both professional and amateur, andbroadcast for everyone to see.

Indeed, this time we’ve been eyewitnesses to a violation ofour civilization played out on television as if it were, at first, aHollywood movie. Alas, it was not a movie. Special effects wizards didnot create the explosions, nor did movie producers commission images ofviolence for personal gain. But just as celluloid scenes of destructionhave recoiled into sheepish irrelevancy in light of real life and realtragedy, the wealth of video images that has emerged from Tuesday the11th of September and in the days succeeding has reached out to theentire country and the world.

People have seen what happened, not just as fact but also asconsequence, plainly visible in the mounting toll on individuals,families, New York City, and the nation. What has emerged in responseto these intimate pictures is an empathetic, sympathetic, andpatriotically-united public, mobilized to respond with unprecedentedgoodwill, donations of money and time, and a pooling of expertise toaid the victims and the relief effort.

With Video as Our Witness

For those who were watching live television in those early momentsof the crisis, the first footage of airliners slamming into the TwinTowers and their subsequent collapse may not have immediately capturedthe magnitude of the moment. There were no HerbMorrison/Hindenberg-like descriptions of calamity to explicate thehorror, at least none that I’m aware of. Indeed, most newsanchors, as I understand it, were just as puzzled as their viewers.Together, we were left to make sense out of the senselessness, our onlyguide the couch-bound fog of a typical movie plot. But soon othercameras on the scene began to show what happened more clearly and fillin the blanks left by that initial bewilderment.

Within a remarkably short period of time, footage emerged of thesecond crash and then footage from street level of the first airplanehitting the North Tower. Through the attentive eyes of both newscameras and handheld camcorders, we were able to see several differentangles of the planes as they tore through the twin mascots ofcapitalism. It is positively remarkable footage, in many senses of theword. You can see the jets entering the frame, crashing into thebuildings, and becoming the bombs that would ultimately bring down thetwo towers. In some clips you can see the planes disappear into thebuildings, leaving an evil, black silhouette of the fuselage and thewings before igniting the fatal blast.

People have said that video simply can’t capture the truedevastation of an event such as this. The narrow frame is hopeless toconvey the enormity of the wreckage that consumes some sixteen footballfields worth of twisted metal piled stories high and stories deep.I’m sure that’s true. But I’ve also seen plenty ofvideo that tells a very compelling story of what occurred. Furthermore,video has been critical in the attempt to show the country and theworld what happened in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

While the news footage of the collapses showed the facts, amateurvideo has shown the reality of what it was like to be there. After Dr.Mark Heath heard the first airplane explosions, he ventured toward thesite to offer assistance, camcorder in hand and recording. He wasasking a bystander where medical assistance might be needed when anoise above tempted the camcorder upward. As an enormous cloud of graydust and debris descended, all Dr. Heath and the people around himcould do was run until the cloud engulfed their position. Heath,constantly narrating for what sounded as if it might be posterity,described how broad daylight had turned to complete darkness.

An apparent stranger pulled another amateur videographer, camerarolling, from the street into a shop. Her camcorder was at first fixedon the Trade Center building as it was collapsing and she did not seemto recognize the imminent danger. Within seconds of her safe arrival inthe shop, the haze of rubble rolled past, first turning the sunshine togray, then black. Simultaneously, her confusion on the audio trackturned to unabashed thanks to the stranger for saving her life.

Perhaps the camera can’t capture the wreckage, but video canread the faces of the firefighters and rescue workers as they came inand out of the “hole.” Big bears of men, some with tears intheir eyes, were visibly humbled by what they had seen and what theywere there to do. Cameras, too, can capture the obvious selflessnessnot usually associated with New Yorkers.

Other video has shown thousands of people, pictures in hand,searching in the streets of New York for missing loved ones. Have youseen my brother, my aunt, my husband, my child? Many were interviewed,their stories similar and tragic. Occasionally, a probing, insensitivereporter pointed a camera toward an awkward scene, and that will happenwith any crisis. But this story, and these thousands of personalstories, seemed to breed remarkable restraint from typical behavior,even within the media. Most of the stories have been riveting and, so,I have watched for days and the video and the stories keep coming.

An Unfolding Drama

I have also watched to understand who did this. And, for the firstcouple of days, news reporters and networks were often tripping overthemselves trying to break the latest tidbits. Much of it wasjournalism at its finest, but in haste, errors were also made —sometimes recanted, but many times not, leaving viewers wondering whatinformation was the latest and most accurate. In the tumult, computergraphics reached the absurd, with chicky disaster logos and local andnetwork overlays fighting one another for the same lower-third space.This is where live video coverage can be at its worst.

Fortunately, by Friday morning law enforcement seemed to be limitinginformation to the media and the public at large. Sure, I want to knoweverything they know. I want to hear all the reports. I want vengeance.I want the hatred that caused this destruction to face the full wrathof the world community. But it is rarely appropriate to follow thoseemotions to fast action and in this case it is no different. On theevening of the 11th, news cameras showed us bombing in Afghanistan andthat might have held some degree of satisfaction. But it wasn’tjustice and, fortunately, it was not ours. I can wait for appropriateand smart action, taken against the right people at the right time bypeople who have a strategy and a method to serve justice.

Video of the disasters has given us, the public, our mission, andthat is to come together. Images from around the world — the“Star-Spangled Banner” played outside Buckingham Palace inLondon, candlelight vigils in Berlin, moments of silence around Europe,and many more hopeful scenes — have shown we are not isolated,and pictures from across this country have shown we are united. Inthat, we have already begun to win.

Jeff Sauer is a Video Systems contributing editor.