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.

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