World Trade Center

Go back to my home page on http://www.amanzafar.com

Visitor number since July 2, 2006: 19,320

Five years since the attacks. A lot of people have visited this site and I have received a lot of E-mails from everyone thanking me for sharing the photographs.

Recently, people have been writing to me with political views on what they believed happened. I personally do NOT have political views which involve any kind of government conspiracy and would NOT like to engage in such a debate.

The purpose of this site and the pictures is purely to share my experiences and those of thousands of other people on that day.

Please also note all these pictures are taken on 35mm film and are copyright of Aman Zafar (i.e. ME!!!!).

ALL PICS ARE SCANNED AS IS. NO SPECIAL EFFECTS HAVE BEEN USED. I DID NOT EVEN SHARPEN THEM.

***NOTE - A number of people have asked me if I still have the negatives. I do not have them. They were not in individual sleeves and when I took them out after several years, they got melted together in the heat (apparently it does not have to be in an over room temperature if they are in the same sleeve for 5 years), I had to throw them out ages ago. Clicking on the picture will give you the best resolution that I have.***

***UPDATE - Having got a LARGE number of requests to post higher resolution pictures, I have gone back and once again scanned all the pics from the 5x7 prints (except for a couple at the end which are 4x6) at about 21 Mega Pixels using the HIGHEST quality jpeg setting. Clicking on the pictures will give you that resolution. This resolution not only catches every detail in the print, but also all the dust on them. I have also gone through the order from the contact print and made a few changes in sequence that I had earlier messed up on.

Please let me know if you encounter any incorrect links or see an issue with the order.

My WTC weblog is here.

If you have any comments, please feel free to E-mail me on amanzafar@amanzafar.com

Click on the respective picture to enlarge. They are in order of sequence of events.

The pictures were taken from my apartment in Jersey. I did not see the two planes hit, but started to take pictures about 3-4 mins after the second one hit.

A view from my apartment a week before the terrorist attack

A view from the park in front of my apartment

A zoomed in view of the buildings just right of the world trade center

Pictures from my apartment a few weeks (maybe months) before the attacks

About 5 mins after the second plane hit. You can see the fire on the left tower and where the plane went in the right tower.

This guy must have had a close call since was totally shaken up.

The fire in the left tower seems to be spreading fast. You can also see it about 15 floors below towards the left.

The complete ring of fire is visible here. Floors about 15 floors below also seem to be on fire.

The right tower is starting to collapse. At this point I was not too sure what was happening and thought that it was just large chunks falling off. The helicopter gives the picture some perspective

This picture was probably about 10 seconds after the previous one. It was a horrific site as everyone knows how crowded the WTC buildings are and the number of commuters who are in the Subway system below it. No one had even imagined that the buildings would collapse since it had been over an hour and people thought the worst was over.

Seems like a sight from the movie Independence day.

The debris starts to engulf the buildings. The building on the left shows reflection of the debris on that side.

About 10 seconds after two pictures before

About 10 seconds after the two pictures before. You can see the debris spreading.

After about another 10 seconds.

The debris pretty much covers the buildings in the front.

Some of the buildings are no longer visible.

Nearly all the buildings have disappeared.

A little perspective on the destruction.

Even the boats have disappeared near the harbor.

The debris starts to clear

The second building is starting to show some activity.

The second building starts to collapse. The horror repeats itself. You can see the size of the debris.

You can still see the lightning rod as it comes down.

You can still see some of the frame standing.

Once again the debris starts to engulf the building. The frame is falling over.

The debris seems to be much thicker this time round.

Nearly all the buildings this time round have disappeared.

Once again a perspective of the damage. You can see the people at the lower corner of the picture.

In the afternoon sun, the colour of the smoke is different. I am no longer shooting against the sun.

Took some pictures down from the park.

Night shots a couple of days afterwards to show the smoke over lower Manhattan

Candle light vigil a couple of nights after the attack.

A couple of days after the attack.

Two F-16s patrolling the skies.