25 Years Since 9/11: AP Photojournalist Richard Drew on The Falling Man Photograph

Richard Drew (0:00)

My cell phone went off, and my photo editor, Barbara Woyke, on the phone, she put my assignment at her, she said, a plane's at the World Trade Center, bag the fashion show, you have to go.

SPEAKER_2 (0:18)

You have witnessed so many important moments in American history, turning points in American history, and you've captured it on film and on digital. And I just wanted to ask you, do you feel like a documentarian of history? Is it something that you understand in the moment, or is it something you only see in retrospect?

Richard Drew (0:37)

I think that my photos will be, show the reader history of what happens. If you live in Omaha, Nebraska, for example, and something happens here in New York, like 9-11, photos are, that's your, besides television, of course, in your local newspaper, is, that's your, that's your output, that's the output for the, just to see the photos. And I like to think that I do share history every day, that my photographs are ones that people want to see.

There's a lot of pictures that are out there. I've seen, well, they, well, they, I can critique them in my mind, and I look at them and say, oh boy, you missed the picture there, whatever it was, it's, you know, something that's in the Daily News or the Post or the New York Times or whatever. I said, well, if I was there, I would have done this, that and the other two, but maybe it wouldn't have existed, but I was just thinking through it.

SPEAKER_2 (1:32)

That's cool.

Richard Drew (1:33)

Thank you.

SPEAKER_2 (1:34)

So you've been with AP, you said, for how many years?

Richard Drew (1:38)

I've been a staff photographer at AP for 56 years. I started with AP in San Francisco, at San Francisco Bureau, in February of just 1970, and I moved to New York in 1973 They had an opening here, and I took the opportunity. In San Francisco, I was one of 29 people that were out for that job in San Francisco. So that's how I started with AP. I was chosen for that position, and then I moved here when one of the photographers retired.

Since then, I've covered stories around the world. I went to Zaire in Africa for the Rumble in the Jungle with Muhammad Ali. That was really interesting. We actually had to go twice because the fight was called off, because one of the fighters had his eye cut, so he had to turn around to come home. We had to wait a couple, three weeks, and then we flew back again to Zaire for that one.

I'm trying to think of all the stuff that I've covered over the years. It's just amazing here and out of country. I went to, let me see, I'm trying to think of all the different places that I've gone. Wow. I mean, I'm going to different places on my own. I went to Cuba, that was really interesting, but not for the AP.

SPEAKER_2 (2:53)

No, but I have seen your picture of Castro.

Richard Drew (2:56)

I was in Argentina for a month during the Falklands War as a photographer for the AP. And then I had to replace another photographer who was already there. And from there, I went to Lima, Peru, and I had another job for two weeks there for the AP. And so I've traveled all over there. I've been all over the Caribbean, different stories in the Caribbean, like when the US had to go rescue our medical students from this island in the Caribbean. I got a call first thing in the morning, and I got all the gear I needed in, went over and got an airplane and flew down.

And wow, I'm trying to think of all the different places I've been.

I did Evel Knievel's Snake River Canyon Jump. That was an interesting week or so that I was out there. That's fun. Yeah, it was fun. He got to the end of the launch pad, and that was it. And then in one of my photographs, the parachute is already deployed before he gets to the end of it.

SPEAKER_2 (4:08)

He gets to the end of it.

Richard Drew (4:10)

That's really interesting. What else have I done? Oh my gosh.

I've just been all over the place. I went to, did something in LA. I can't remember. Oh, I did an Oscars, once an Oscars. That was interesting. Yeah, it's an interesting job because there's a variety of, sorry, there's a good variety of things to cover. Here in New York, one day or the next, I could be here at the New York Stock Exchange, or I could be at City Hall with the mayor, or I could be anywhere, really, whatever goes on, you know.