I got up this morning, just like I did eight years ago, thinking it was just a normal day.  In fact, I had a guest post from Bambi Cantrell already posted when I realized the significance of today’s date.   I took it down and moved it to next week’s blog.

Here’s a different way to look at 9-11…look at it with the respect and even pride of the role professional photographers played that horrible day.  From legends like Steve McCurry, who captured the pain as it unfolded from his roof top in New York,  to thousands of unknown portrait photographers who had taken the wedding, graduation and business portraits of so many of the lost friends and family members, everyone played a role.

Because so many of the victims of the tragedy were young, so often we saw senior shots and bridal portraits.  So often we saw Lisa Jane’s story from an earlier post, played out with the image taken by a professional photographer being the last portrait made of the subject.   Her statement about never compromising on quality became so true thousands of times, over and over again.

The images captured by photo-journalists of the fire fighters are permanently etched into our memories along with thousands of images of the people directly involved that day.  Each time, the click of a shutter, pulled us into the crisis, keeping all of us glued to the television, the newspapers, magazines and the Internet.

Tony Corbell, every now and then, opens his workshop with a little audience participation.  He’ll simply ask people to shout out the photographs they most remember.  It’s a powerful tool, making a point about the importance of photography and the responsibility we all share in this industry.

One of the most poignant comments I heard from the professional community, regarding what we all do, came from Monte Zucker when he received the IPC Award as one of the photographers of the year at a luncheon at the UN.  Also receiving the award that day were several photo-journalists who had documented 9-11.

“I’m so humbled to receive this award in the company of these fine photographers.  You see, I have it easy.  I get to photograph the world the way I wish it was, but they have to photograph the world the way it really is!”

I’ve said it dozens of times before…with the exception of modern medicine, no career field has given the world more than professional photography.  And, it doesn’t matter what side of the business you’re on – if you’re part of the photographic community you share an incredible responsibility.   That alone should be enough to make you proud of what you do with that camera in your hand, make you strive to always deliver the very best images and simply feed the passion for the quest to create and capture the ultimate image!