Texas Man Uses Power Washer to Recreate Iconic 9/11 Photo

A Texas man who uses a power washer to make art marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by recreating an iconic photograph showing three firefighters raising the US flag amid the ruins of the former World Trade Center.

The photo which artist Sam Ward depicted on his concrete driveway was originally taken by Thomas E Franklin, a photographer working for the The Bergen Record, on the day of the 2001 attacks at Ground Zero.

Speaking to New York’s Journal News about the photo in 2016, Franklin said, “I’m very proud and humbled by the fact that it means so much to so many other people. And the fact that it did appear on a US postage stamp and helped raise over $10 million for victims of 9/11, I think that speaks volumes, not only about the power of a photograph, but how good photography really changes the world.”

The firefighters in the photo were George Johnson, Billy Eisengrein, and Dan McWilliams, according to the Washington Post.

Ward lives in New Braunfels, Texas, and began creating power washer art during quarantine in 2020, according to the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. He has created images depicting Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, a healthcare worker, the Statue of Liberty, and others. Credit: @powerwashingart via Storyful