Multimedia Professor Featured on PBS Episode

Multimedia Journalism Professor Thomas E. Franklin, a former newspaper photographer whose iconic 9/11 photo was made into a postage stamp, will be featured on an episode of the new PBS series The Bigger Picture.

The series, hosted by Harvard University professor and historian Vincent Brown, The Bigger Picture explores American history through recognizable photographs that portray national culture and identity.

Franklin will be featured for his iconic photograph Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, which depicts firefighters at the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In the episode titled “The Hero Shot,” Franklin shares his experience of that catastrophic day when he captured the heroism of the firefighters as well as his experience of his work becoming a cultural phenomenon.

“When a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, I rushed to get there as quickly as  any other photojournalist did to take pictures, and I happened to witness a significant moment that became a symbol of that day,” Franklin says.

At the time he captured the image, he had no idea it would become a symbol of history. Later, the photograph was also made into a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service, raising more than $10 million for victims affected by 9/11.

“The power of the picture has little to do with me,” Franklin says. “I’m proud of it, and I’m happy that the picture has done so much good to raise money but it’s really about the feeling and emotion that people feel when looking at it.”

The photo, which he took as part of his job as a photojournalist with The Record in Bergen County, was also a finalist for a 2002 Pulitzer Prize.

The Bigger Picture episode featuring Franklin was shot in two different locations; the first part took place at Jersey City’s Mana Contemporary, an old warehouse that stores 9/11 artifacts. Inside of the Mana, the interview focused on the events of Sept. 11.

The location was the Exchange in Jersey City, which is located on the river where the ferry takes people to and from New Jersey and Lower Manhattan. It is the location where Franklin captured some of his 9/11 photos and provides a glimpse of what he saw happen that day before he took the ferry to travel to Ground Zero where he snapped the photo.

Brown’s approach to the interview was very casual and effective, Franklin says.

“What I really liked about the interview was that Vince was very charismatic. It was one of the best interviews I have ever done, talking about 9/11 because he took a very conversational approach when we taped it,” Franklin says. “I have not seen [the episode], but I’m very excited about it and curious to see how it came out.”

The “The Hero Shot” episode is set to air at noon on Sept. 6 on the main PBS YouTube channel.

Story by Communications and Marketing Intern Rosaria LoPresti.