David Handschuh was sitting in traffic on Wall Street on Sept. 11, 2001, when he heard on the police scanner that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. He was a photojournalist for the New York Daily News, and was also teaching photography at New York University.
“It was unreal. It was unbelievable. The idea that somebody could fly two planes into two different buildings," Handschuh recounted. "Of course, [I] had no idea about the Pentagon, no idea about Shanksville. All I knew is that it really seemed to be an intentional act of terrorism, and that made it all surreal. Looking through the camera lens made it seem unreal. [I] just had to keep take a deep breath, literally focus on capturing what was happening.”
As soon as he heard the sirens from Rescue Company One, a fire truck, Handschuh followed them straight to the World Trade Center.
“They're pulling out tools, they're getting ready to go rescue people and save lives, and they're waving out the back door of the fire truck to me," he said. "These are firefighters that I've covered for decades, performing heroics all around the city of New York. They recognize me; I recognize them, and just follow them right down to the Trade Center. Unfortunately, all 11 firefighters on Rescue One that morning lost their life at the trade center.”
Handschuh was at the World Trade Center along with fellow photographer Todd Maisel. Their photos are now on display as part of a new exhibit at the New York State Museum, which opened Sept. 5.
The New York State Museum houses the largest collection of artifacts and objects related to 9/11. Part of its collection is on display in its permanent exhibit, which opened just a few months after September 2001. The museum is marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a new exhibit this year.
Handschuh was injured and buried under debris from the South Tower. He was found by firefighters from Engine 217, who removed the debris from above him, but went to search for their fellow firefighters.
“Two other firefighters picked me up and started carrying me back towards Battery Park City, and that's the photograph. One of the photographs that Todd Maisel has is me being carried, actually, by a a paramedic, a police officer, and a firefighter.”
Handschuh and Maisel’s photos from that day are part of a new exhibit at the New York State Museum marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11. The exhibit, “Witness to 9/11,” is made up of pictures selected by the two photographers and the museum’s curators to provide a perspective from the day from people on the ground.
Senior Historian Aaron Noble walked me through the exhibit at the New York State Museum.
“As you move into the 'Aftermath' section of the exhibit, there is a photo of David Handschuh actually being carried by a police officer and firefighters after he is pulled from the rubble," Noble explained, pointing to the photo. "Todd actually turned around and took the photo. But what’s incredible is also in this section, the main blow-up photo on the 'Aftermath' panel is a photo that David took after he had been pulled from the rubble, [and] had been carried a short distance away. They had to set him down to do something else, and he continued to take pictures, and so the angle of the photo is low because it’s him laying on the ground and him continuing to do his job, even in the midst of everything he was experiencing.”
The exhibit is divided into four sections: Evacuation, Aftermath, Rescue, and Grief. Noble says the final section was to acknowledge the deep impact 9/11 had on victims and their families, on that day and 25 years later.
“This is a story that keeps going. We’re still losing people to the effects of this attack, and we’re still as a nation, and as individual New Yorkers figuring out how to deal with the grief, that we’re continuing. We wanted to be a little more open-ended as we’re approaching this story.”
While the "Witness to 9/11" exhibit is new, the state museum has had a permanent exhibit since early 2002, just months after the day.
Director of Exhibitions Carrie Ross was working at the museum on 9/11. She was one of several curators who retrieved objects from the Fresh Kills recovery facility in Staten Island, where NYPD and FBI staff were searching for remains through the debris from the World Trade Center.
“At Fresh Kills – what you really had there was dedication, they worked pretty much 24 hours a day, they didn’t want to stop they were searching for human remains, or personal objects; or the black boxes, it was really important to try and find those. They never did," she reflected. "It was like its own community there: they had people, volunteers coming in and feeding them. It was really emotional to see that kind of dedication of other first responders. I’m glad I don’t ever have to go back.”
Ross says the state museum was unique in its quick reaction to the event. At the center of the room with the permanent exhibit sits Fire Engine 6, whose team was one of the first to respond. Firefighter Billy Green was the only survivor.
“When we opened this exhibit, we had many people from Engine 6, FDNY, the NYPD here. It was very, very emotional for them. As Aaron was touching on, it wasn’t something museums were doing, collecting things as they’re happening," she said. "And if you look at the front of the fire engine, you’ll see all the tributes from the families. It’s been emotional over the last 25 years, people still come in.”
A quarter century later, the museum continues to update its collection. It also loans artifacts to museums across the country. Handschuh says "Witness to 9/11," which he and Maisel began working on in December 2025 along with the museum’s curators, seeks to tell the story from the perspective of the people who ran to the towers to document what was happening,. for people to see today.
“There are photographers, reporters who are on the scene who are dealing with every single health effect that rescue workers are dealing with," he said. "That desire to record history that day and to tell the truth overwhelmed the fear of personal injury for these journalists who went alongside, in front of, and right behind firefighters, paramedics, and police officers.”
