THEN AND VOW
Photographer who captured iconic image of woman on 9/11 returns to shoot her wedding
WIDE-EYED with terror and caked in choking white dust, Joanne Capestro runs barefoot with a colleague from the World Trade Center’s North Tower, moments before it collapsed on 9/11.
Seventeen years on, the man who took that picture on the worst day of her life, took the photos on the happiest – as Joanne was married to Robert Vasquez.
Photographer Phil Penman was introduced to his subject only three years ago when his work was shown in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero and staff recognised Joanne.
She says: “When we met, he came into my office and just looked at me and I looked at him and just started crying.”
They stayed in touch and he was her wedding photographer last month.
She said: “Phil was with me on the best day of my life and the worst day of my life.”
Joanne, then a secretary for the May Davis Group, was working on the 87th floor when a plane hit six floors above.
She says: “That was a regular day for me. When I woke up I didn’t feel well, but I still went to work. I was at my desk with one of my co-workers. The phone rang and he answered, then the plane hit.
“The impact was so strong and the building was shaking.”
It was the first tower hit. Two of the three stairwells were “melting”, but a third was passable and she fled down 87 flights of stairs. As she got outside, the tower began to collapse and Phil took his shot. Phil and Joanne