Afterimage: Oded Balilty

HIS KEEN EYE and speedy shutter have earned photographer Oded Balilty his share of accolades. The Jerusalem-born and -based Associated Press photographer snapped up a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year for a 2006 photograph of a settler resisting Israeli forces in the West Bank (seen here), as well as awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International and the National Press Photographers Association. His work has taken the 28-year-old into the war zone during last year's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as to Ukraine to cover the historic, hard-fought election of 2004.

Balilty spoke with Express about photographing the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Click here to view a PDF of "Afterimage," our monthly photo page, which features Balility's photo of a man wrapped in an American flag at Ground Zero.

» EXPRESS Can you describe how you made your early morning photograph of a man wrapped in the American flag at Ground Zero?
» BALILITY: To see someone that covered himself with his own national flag on the site where such a terrible thing happened — it was a contrast for me, very contrasting. ...

I shot four or five pictures; I stood there for a few minutes. I was going all around the area and around Ground Zero, and it seemed to me like thousands of people came to pay their respects that day. Not very many people carry the U.S. flag there today; I think that's because many people don't really agree with government decisions about many things. They came to pay their respects to those people that were killed there — not exactly for the country. This is why it was very interesting to see this guy cover himself with his flag.

Actually, I find it more difficult to shoot very emotional things like that — this is more difficult to shoot than when things get very crazy, or when there is shooting or fire. There was lots of emotion involved.

You see New York with different eyes that day. Usually it's very happy, and everybody walks so fast, but [around Ground Zero] — everyone walks so slow to pay their respects. It feels like this place always looks forward: they look to the future, and then, they look to the past [on the 9/11 anniversary]. It's kind of weird to see New York like that.

» EXPRESS Is New York still healing?
» BALILITY: Yeah, but I've heard from many people that it's not like it was in the first year, or the second or the third year. It has a different vibe, or impact, after those years — which is totally normal. People learn how to live with this thing, the relatives of the victims, even. With the years, they know how to live with that.

» EXPRESS Are 9/11 anniversary memorials still necessary for healing or are they becoming less relevant?
» BALILITY: I think it's both, and I [also] think it's to put people into perspective. Every year? I mean, I'm sure that [relatives of the victims] live every day with that. The relatives don't really need the ceremonies — they have, I'm sure, their ceremonies, in a way, in a spiritual way, in every way; there's no specific one day to remember [the victims]. But, yeah, it is important.

I remember, I was in Israel when it happened. It was one of the days, one of those days, September 11th — everyone in the world remembers exactly where he was and what he did. ...

As a photojournalist, I've seen so many things in my life, but nothing even close to [September 11, 2001]. ... I missed [being able to photograph the attacks]. I guess my chance was six years after.

» EXPRESS Where do you go from winning a Pulitzer? I see you've been shooting fashion lately — do you want to shoot more of that?
» BALILITY: No, that was just to take a break; I'm not crazy about fashion stuff. But it was interesting to see New York in a different way. It was nice to walk in New York; I never walked around it before.

And now, what's next? To do exactly what I'm doing — to go on and tell stories, some stories that people know, and I'll try to tell more stories that people don't know. That's our mission, that's our job, to be storytellers. That's all we do.

Written by Express' Chris Combs
Photo courtesy of The Pulitzer Prizes