As the story notes, “Historically, the photographs we tend to remember are not the ones that capture the whole of a tragedy — a broad battlefield — but the ones that depict the personal effects of one . . .” A single image of a single person “can be tremendously evocative and distill the essence of a tragedy,” says Ann Shumard, the curator of photographs for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. “To focus on just one person in the midst of all this swirling chaos — I think that’s probably the first step to coming to terms with what has happened.”
Iffrig did not see the photograph until several days after the bombing. He had seen on the news the widely circulated video of him falling, and he knew that a lot of people wanted to interview him. But he had not seen the photograph until a gate agent at the airport pulled him aside and said, “I have something for you.” Like others captured in tragic events, he doesn't know what to make of his new place in history. But he certainly has a place.