Official Photographer of Ground Zero Gary Marlon Suson

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview Official Photographer of Ground Zero Gary Marlon Suson. He will discuss September 11th.

Suson’s career took a sudden and jarring halt when terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. Mr. Suson grabbed his camera and began documenting immediately. Driving around the Ground Zero site with friends in the NYPD, Suson documented as close as possible without actually stepping foot into the highly restricted areas.

After reading a story in the Daily News about sick 9/11 FDNY Firefighters, Suson began acting as a liaison for some of these men exposed to toxins on 9/11, via the FDNY Fire Union, arranging free environmental health care for them. This lead to a chance encounter between Suson and FDNY Firefighter Rudy Sanfilippo, who was the Manhattan Trustee for New York City’s Firefighter’s Union. Sanfilippo, who had survived both collapses of the Twin Towers, inquired about Suson’s photography and after seeing his memorial website, SeptemberEleven.net - invited Suson to fire union headquarters to have a “chat.” That talk lead to Sanfilippo offering Suson one of the most coveted photographic positions of the last century: To be the Official Photographer at Ground Zero on behalf of the Uniformed Firefighter’s Association - to be the eyes for the masses. Initially, Sanfilippo needed the families to have a photographic record of their loved ones remains being treated respectfully.