A black woman carries an Asian girl, both with umbrellas, crossing the anti‑terrorist protection barriers surrounding the building on Wall Street. Behind them a white man, dressed in business attire, asks for a hotdog. Another woman holds an umbrella with the American flag. In the background is Trinity Church, the founding entity of Columbia University, the first university in the state of New York. In its cemetery are buried some of the men who declared independence.
I arrived on Wall Street around nine, it was raining, it was raining hard. In American culture the idea of fighting for territorial conquest is deeply rooted. For European conquerors the natural forces of America were of another dimension. Although the rain was not the great natural disaster, it could serve me to show Americans fighting, moving forward, making a path.
The place was special, the center of the financial world and the most recent wound in the history of the United States. With its symbols of power and fear alike.
Place: 51‑65 William St, New York, NY 10038, USA
Date: 27/09/2010
An hour after shooting various frames I saw the woman with the girl in the cart, the flag umbrella and the hotdog guy, and I knew: if I take this photo, it’s the one I came to find. I don’t know if it will be my best photo, but when Darius told me “your favorite photo” this was the one that appeared in my mind.
Originally published on: My Very Special Photo by Darius Koehli.