If last year we talked about the controversial story of this shot of September 11, 2001, one year later we tell another story. That of Bill Biggart and his film roll.

On September 11, 2001, New York woke up under a clear sky, completely unaware of what was about to happen. When Bill Biggart heard that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, he rushed home, grabbed three cameras, and headed toward Manhattan. He walked quickly, shooting along the way, as smoke began to darken the horizon.

Biggart got so close to the Twin Towers that he photographed them from below, engulfed in flames. After the first tower collapsed, he was still able to capture the dust, the firefighters, and the devastation around him. Shortly after, on the phone, he reassured his wife Wendy: “I’m fine, I’ll see you in twenty minutes at the studio. I’m with the firefighters.”

Twenty years later, the images recovered from the damaged cameras remain his ultimate testimony. The last photograph bears the time 10:28:24, just moments before the second tower collapsed, taking him with it.