Obviously I am alive....
Everybody assumed I would be there and I was- just not the under the
debris.
Thank you for your calls and email. It is all too much here.
I am in the street seeing f-16 Fighter planes circling our city.
We have war planes above NYC the World Trade Towers are leveled.
To experience this first hand and to be living it - takes me to shaky
limits..
I have been to ground zero for two nights.
Rode my bike through pitch black streets east of Broadway and Wall St.
Entered from the south.
Generators with lights that shining on the National Guard lines. US
Marshals with pulled shot guns. War choppers on the heliport pad that
we usually fly out of. Architecture that I have shot that just doesn't exist
anymore. Wall Street covered with thick dust. Pancaked cars with blown
out windows.
Even with a mask on you wonder what you are breathing.
Like the aftermath of a war but, sadly I realize it is just the start of one.
I have always said Americans have no idea what it is to be attacked.
The disaster down there will take months to clear out. There are many
buildings that will have to come down yet.
Covered with dust, wearing a face mask I felt compelled to photograph
plight of mankind digging the way through the chaos down there..
I could help dig and I may - but I felt what I could give to man kind are
some of the enclosed images.
I mentally melted down last night after riding my bike back through the
darkness of lower Manhattan up the East side of the city to my studio. I
stopped to comprehend the sadness at the Armory at 26th and Lex.
Poster after poster of missing people, a lady playing "Amazing Grace" on
a Violin. I had cameras but I was out of emotion to shoot the scene was
so sadly personal I just frozen for awhile.
I felt physically ill or is it mental? All those people and their families...
The on coming change in all our lives. The freedom in which we move has
been taken from us. Am I mad? Befuddled, I think is a amore accurate
feeling. I just don't know where this will take us. I hope guys running
the ship are good sailors...
The fire men are amazing. Friendly-- helping me to get to great locations
etc.
The cops are doing their job, but even with press credentials I was
physically held by two cops had my press photo ID ripped off me and
taken. Then I was escorted for 5 blocks with my arms held behind my
back by these two guys -"like oh My god - he just may take another
picture."
But I realize it's just what I do -It's just what they do. They just can't
stop being Cops.
We are entering a very trying period and I hope everyone can hang in
and be there for one and other.
I wish everybody safety and sanity and if you have lost some one near to
you - my most sincere love....
Fred George Worldwide Europe
Ottstraße 2, 66115 Saarbrücken, Germany