Preparation

Last month’s heinous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon have left an indelible mark on all of us - not only New Yorkers but decent people everywhere in the world.

Last month’s heinous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon have left an indelible mark on all of us - not only New Yorkers but decent people everywhere in the world.

By Michael Carroll
October 2001
Institutional Investor Magazine

We at Institutional Investor were fortunate to have been spared the loss of any of our fellow employees, though many of us lost friends and family members.

As journalists, our response to the tragedy was simple: We decided to rip up the magazine that was planned for this month and put together a special report on the events. While some writers examined ways in which the world of finance, as we have known it, may be changed, others fanned out through the city to talk to survivors of the Twin Towers’ collapse, as well as to the families of the dead and missing.

Working closely with the writers and editors, our art department, under the direction of Art Director Irene Ledwith and Photo Editor Anastasia Pleasant, contacted photographers throughout the city and combed through thousands of images - horrific and painfully moving - to assemble the photos that run through the report.

For Pleasant and her crew, the terrible events had a special poignancy: They had been scheduled to shoot several scenes that day in the shadows of the Twin Towers, for a photo essay celebrating the winners of the 2001 All-America Research Team. Like most New Yorkers over the past few weeks, we changed our plans in the aftermath of the attacks.

“Continuing with the AART project would have been inappropriate, and it would have been impossible,” Pleasant says. “We were scheduled to photograph on the afternoon of September 11, at the park right outside the Trade Center. Many of the other locations, which were mostly in the Financial District, are now destroyed or inaccessible.”

Instead, Pleasant phoned up winning analysts and asked them to sit for a group shot. Remarkably, though they had just a few days’ notice, 66 of the 79 winners - including several from out of town - showed up at a studio at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. For the cover, Ledwith commissioned model maker Michael Miller to build a replica of the Towers, made of metal plates etched by Insight Designs with the names of the atrocity’s victims, dead and missing. The model was then photographed by David White.

In the end, there is no way to be prepared for a disaster of the magnitude of September 11. Having a dedicated and supportive group of people to work with, however, is one way to try to get through it.

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