Frankie Shaw Instagram – I was a baby. I had just arrived in New York City. I was supposed to have photography class at 9am that morning. My mom called my dorm phone at 830 “don’t you dare leave your room.” I went to class anyway.
This boy asked if anyone wanted to go see what was going on? But Roma, our teacher, warned us, we needed to get back to our rooms, class is cancelled. I whispered to Aaron that I would go. He was older. From the city. Later he would make fun of me for pronouncing the H in the word Heiress after I told him I had rented the 1947 film, trying to impress him Im sure. But right then we felt lucky. We each had ten brand new rolls of film.
We braced ourselves against the mass exodus trying to escape from downtown. Aaron and I snuck behind firefighters to make our way inside, we got to ground zero. It was idiotic and insane but I was 18 and hadn’t learned to be afraid yet. I think we were all just looking for answers to what was happening, but also we were looking for something to show us what we were made of. At this point in my life, all I knew was basketball. There was an exhilaration and a safety I found being behind the camera. It was a new feeling that I’ve been chasing ever since. I shot all ten rolls.
We saw a police officer raiding a porn shop. But mostly we saw men in pain trying to help. Around 3pm an enraged policeman came running towards me “Marshall law! You can’t be here!!!” And he put us on a small police boat that dumped us on the shore somewhere in Jersey. We sat drinking Heineken, watching the city burn from across the water having no idea what was ahead. | Posted on 11/Sep/2023 23:37:02
