It’s been 25 years since the World Trade Center towers fell after highjacked planes crashed into them. Memories surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks still flow easily for some — like they happened yesterday. Longtime teacher, storyteller and photojournalist Jim Veneman covered Ground Zero. He has spoken a lot about those memories and the unexpected assignment that still sticks with him today.
When the topic comes up, so does one particular photograph he captured. Veneman recently shared with The Baptist Paper about the coverage assignment he and a small Baptist Press team (that included him, Morris Abernathy and Todd Starnes) embarked on in New York City that horrific week.
Veneman didn’t hesitate when asked about what image stood out to him the most. For him, it was the brief moment he shared with Lt. Col. Ellen McArthur, dressed head to toe in military fatigues.
The two came face to face on a busy NYC sidewalk that day. The reservist rounded a corner, clutching an American flag as Veneman’s mind swirled over deadlines and what images he needed to send to BP’s Nashville office before deadline.
All eyes on Ground Zero
McArthur told the New York Daily News a firefighter had pulled the flag from the rubble at Ground Zero. She asked if she could keep it. She said the flag gave her hope that a fellow member of her unit who was missing might be found alive. “We’re pretty sure he’s gone,’’ she told a reporter.
Veneman recalled all of the journalists from around the globe flocking to Ground Zero. He described an unrelenting drive to keep working without a break — seeking to share news that could maybe provide some glimmer of hope to people searching for loved ones.
‘You didn’t want to quit’
“You never really wanted to stop because the work at Ground Zero was not stopping,” he told The Baptist Paper.
He recalled all of the photos taped up everywhere of missing loved ones. “You didn’t want to quit. You were afraid if you went back and slept for a few hours, you were … going to miss something. … It was such a powerful story that needed to be told, and the only way you could tell it was to be down there.”
Back at that city corner, in that brief moment, Veneman and McArthur’s eyes met.
“She saw me, and all of a sudden, she kind of stopped, and she opened her arms partly (with the flag). Then she stopped, and she kind of bowed her head a little bit,” he recalled. “And I think she was deciding, ‘Do I do this or not?’ And then she raised her head, and she outstretched her arms (displaying the flag).”
In an instant, Veneman grabbed one of the three cameras he carried and snapped a few quick frames. Then McArthur folded up the flag, and the moment was gone. To Veneman’s knowledge, he was the only photographer who captured that moment.
“I’ve talked about this in classes. Sometimes a strong moment can be right in front of you, and you’re not even aware of it, you miss it — and often we walk past it unfortunately,” Veneman said. “Thankfully that time, just because the circumstance, the way it was happening, I did make a photograph.”
Giving people hope
It didn’t seem like that great a shot at the moment, he noted.
“It was not a real perfectly composed image,” he recalled. “I cut her feet off at the ankles. It was an awkward composition.”
Veneman soon returned to a coffee shop and emailed that image with a cluster of other photos. Later that evening, he spoke to an editor about the picture of McArthur and how it was giving some people hope.
“I was told on the phone that particular picture was helping some publications meet some needs,” he recalled. “Already stories were being written revolving around … ‘Where is God?’ ‘How can this happen?’ ‘How can God let this happen?’”
While a lot of the photos, Veneman noted, “were pretty tough situations,” this particular one was different. “I believe I was talking with Art Toalston (BP’s editor) at the time. Art was telling me how that photograph was helping.”
‘It’s the cross’
“Was it the flag?” Veneman asked. “He said, ‘Jim, no, it’s the cross.’”
At the time, Veneman didn’t know what he was talking about. “I went back to that picture, and it’s like ‘Oh my goodness.’ Because the sun was behind her, it created this shadow of her against the flag — and she created a cross right there.”
Reflecting on the picture, Veneman said, “It’s one of those moments where your faith and your patriotism cross, and they just kind of intersect.”
He later noted, “I was in such a hurry that day to meet my deadline … that I didn’t even notice the cross in that picture. I didn’t even see it. … And that’s a lesson there, to pay attention and slow down.”
Veneman, who has taught photography through the years at Union University and California Baptist University, continues to teach photography classes today near his Tennessee home. A member of West Jackson Baptist Church, he said that moment still hits him as an important reminder of how easily God can be found in chaotic times — if we’re paying attention.
“It was a reminder to Christians, ‘Hey, (God) did not leave you. I’m 100% present in this situation and in all your lives. And I’m there.’”
‘Part of the same team’
Looking back amid ongoing political division that seems to only grow today, Veneman still can recall the sweet moments of unity amid the 9/11 crisis — and how in a time of turmoil, grief and tragedy, everyone seemed to put their differences aside.
“It didn’t matter where you were, if I was standing in line for credentials or if I was back at the café. In the café, all you did was order. You didn’t pay. … They would say, ‘How can we help? What would you like?’ And I mean it was in front of you in a second.”
He continued, “It was like everyone was a part of the same team. We were all in it together in that moment. Whatever we were doing, wherever we were, and people were doing whatever they could do. I think God was working through all kinds of people.”
Veneman chuckles today when he talks about how so many people were asking, and continue to ask, “Where is God?”
“It’s almost like my students laughing at me when I couldn’t see the cross in that photograph,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Can you not see that God is literally everywhere? Everywhere you look? Everyone you talk to?’ It really was something.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Shawn Hendricks, director of content for TAB Media Group.
