Indian photographer’s exhibition recalls horror of 9/11 WTC attack
When Kamal Sharma was clicking pictures of the World Trade Center on September 10, 2001 he could not have imagined he was capturing the last images of the iconic twin towers that dominated the Manhattan skyline and were destined to turn into a symbol of one of the world’s worst tragedies the very next day.
As the Indian photojournalist learnt about an aeroplane crashing into one of the towers on the morning of September 11, 2001 at his sister’s home in Queens, he rushed back to Manhattan to capture the colossal tragedy in his lens and the result was a rich repertoire of pictures of the New York skyline before and after the terror attack.
He realised later that he had two sets of pictures taken on two consecutive days that portrayed opposite landscapes, one showing a clean and tranquil skyline of Manhattan before the terror strike and the other showing huge clouds of smoke and dust rising from the pulverised structures after the planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda tore through them. An exhibition of Sharma’s photographs of the terror attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the day before titled I Was There was inaugurated by Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar at the Graphic Era Hill University here on Friday to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy that shook the world.
Sharma also said about his plans to bring out a coffee table book with the same name showcasing his photographs of 9/11 and his experience of covering the tragedy in a couple of months. He is a noted sports photographer who has covered 500 one-day international cricket matches, tests and Ranji Trophy matches besides covering top golfers like Tiger Woods as the official photographer for European Tour Gold in Dubai. “I had gone to New York to cover the US Open which concluded on September 9. The following day I decided to take pictures of Manhattan keeping the twin towers of the WTC at the centre of my photos,” said Sharma who now lives in Dehradun.