THE DAY AFTER fotos by Stephane Sednaoui

Early morning i went to the Jarvis Center to register as a volunteer. But quickly i realize it was best for me to go downtown my own way, avoiding all the check points. I finally reached ground zero at sunset. This is the first image I took.

I was first assigned to remove water on what used to be westside highway. Then later on when i felt a bit more confident i joigned the chain of rescuers in the rumbles and digged, filling up buckets with dust, mud and debries.

The firemen were restless. They would stop for a while until they had enough force to go back and search. Out of all the differents forces they were the most intensed,maybe i could say the most emotional, they were looking to save people, but also they were looking for their team mates.

After resting I left the west side to search and help on the south east side. But the place is unsure as we keep having alerts that the building next to us is moving and might fall. I leave the site around 4-5 am. My camera, probably because of water and dust, stopped to work for a while, the images turned out blurred. I was in the most remote place in ground zero, north side. We were a team of only 10-15 people. Not digging but searching through the metal beams for survivors...

I digged and search with different teams until around 2-4 am when I was completely exhausted and could not lift anything anymore.

Ground Zero, night of sept 12 to 13 th. Leaving the site. Looking east from broadway

When i look now at those blurred images i feel that it is those that express the best what i felt then. A complete state of shock. As if it was too much to see.

William Klein and I by Tristam

In 1994 I am in Moscow doing a fashion shoot with Shalom Harlow. We are at the beautiful Goum department store next to the Red Square. Suddenly I scream, "That's here that's here !!"

My team look at me trying to understand, "That's here, right here that William Klein did one of his picture".

They have no idea what I am talking about, and I am so excited I can't explain, i just recognize the exact spot where Bill shot 40 years earlier. For me it is mind blowing. I had never thought that Bill's images, or any images, could be so engraved in my memory! Just to be sure I ask Shalom to move a bit to the right, and i take the picture for the fun, very eager, once back to NY, to compare it with the original.

Finally today, fifteen years after I took my image, i just compared and i can't believe how close i was from Bill picture, but more than that, i am puzzled that i could even recognized that wall and those stairs. I guess it was the crossing of the people, the light falling on them and the silhouettes coming down from the stairs.

Strange, probably my strongest homage to the photographer that has influence my entire approach to photography.

Photo by Stephane Sednaoui

Amazing how one image can be printed in someone's head