NICOLA McCLEAN, photographer, whose images of September 11th form the basis of 'Ground Zero 360', talks to EOIN BUTLER
Where were you when the first plane hit the World Trade Centre? Iwas in Queens when I got a call from a friend at home in Ireland, telling me that a plane had just flown into the North Tower. I immediately headed towards the scene with my camera. There was tremendous fear in the city. Planes had hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and another was downed in Pennsylvania. So we assumed the Empire State or the Chrysler Building could be next.
What's your most vivid memory of the immediate aftermath of the attacks?The silence. New York has always been a very vibrant city – it still is. Anything you could ever ask for, at any hour of the day or night, you'll find it in New York. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, there was chaos. Car alarms were going off, there were sirens and people were screaming. I don't know when the silence fell, but when it did it was eerie.
How close did you get to the site of the crash?We came through Battery Park. I was travelling in a police vehicle. I got out of the car and walked up Broadway. You could hear a pin drop.
There was a sandy powder falling, it was like a snow scene. There were fire-fighters around but I didn’t dare approach them. You didn’t have to. The whole story was written in their faces.
Did you meet members of the public heading in the opposite direction?I remember a very young girl, even younger than I was at the time, holding a photograph of her brother. She wanted to know if I'd seen her brother. This was the start of the "missing" posters that you see in the exhibit. It didn't make a lot of sense to me. It was obvious no one would be coming out of the wreckage alive. But I guess they wanted people to know. They wanted to have hope.
Ten years on, those posters still pack a pretty hefty emotional punch. One missing fireman, Patrick J O'Keefe, was "treated, released and most likely returned to Ground Zero". Yes, he was seen on TV footage having his wounds treated. He was discharged and headed back towards Ground Zero and was never seen again. He had a wife and kids. Another Irish fire fighter from New Jersey was on his day off and headed to Manhattan. He also was never seen again.
You began to feel American that day? Yes. Although I'd been in the US since 1996, I'd always been an Irish woman in America, rather than an Irish-American. But I was so astounded at the patriotism of the first-responders, the way they did their jobs, they way they responded to a situation they had never been trained to deal with. I love Ireland, but I'm not sure we'd have handled that situation the same way. The first thing I did that night was drive to Home Depot and buy an American flag. Within a couple of days, there wasn't an American flag to be had in the whole country.
How long did you continue shooting at Ground Zero?I was there for about a month and a half in total. After that, I just couldn't take it any more. It was an extremely intense experience. These guys had lost co-workers and family members, but they just continued to work. They worked all day and all night. They were lying on the fenders of fire trucks, lying in doorways, sleeping standing up. Companies like Timberland were sending them shoes to wear and food to eat. They were given masks and goggles to wear, but I don't think a lot of them did. Many of them have died since.
Was it difficult, 10 years later, going back and revisiting all of these memories? I knew I had something special with these photographs. It occurred to me to do something for the fifth anniversary, but I had four small children and it wasn't the right time. Going back now, 10 years on, it has been tremendously difficult. I don't think I'd ever properly dealt with it. I find it difficult to talk about the missing posters in particular. So you take it slowly with this subject matter. Because if you don't, it can defeat you.
You mentioned the patriotism aroused by September 11th. Is that memory tarnished in any way by all that has happened in the aftermath?Politics doesn't come into it. For me, this exhibition is about honouring the memory of the people who died that day. It's not political. It's about putting a book on a library shelf so that future generations, my kids and your kids, never forget what happened on that day.
Ground Zero 360 is at the National Museum of Decorative Arts History, Collins Barracks, Dublin 7
