Changed By 9/11: East Hampton Photographer Documented Aftermath

East Hampton photographer Michael Heller watched the events of 9/11 unfold on television, but that evening state fire officials beckoned him to Ground Zero to document the aftermath.

The New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, whom he had worked with before, asked Heller to meet up with a state search and rescue team. The State Fire Administrator Jim Burns faxed him a letter that allowed him to get through closed roads and past check points. He arrived where the Twin Towers had fallen around 10 p.m.

"Once I checked in with them, it was determined they weren't going to be needed for a while, several hours, at least until morning, so I took it upon myself to documenting everything I could as soon as I could," Heller recalled.

Over the course of the evening and into the next morning, he walked the perimeter of the collapsed building twice. He stayed until the afternoon of Sept. 12.

Concentrating on angles that best represented what he was seeing "kept my mind busy so that I didn't completely lose it," he said.

Heller, who is also a long-time volunteer firefighter with the East Hampton Fire Department, sat with some New York City firefighters who had dragged a couch, a few chairs and a table out of an office building to rest. He sensed they wanted to talk about what they had just experienced.

"These are the guys who lost 343 of their brothers," Heller said. "I had a profound respect for them. I felt like kneeling down in front of them and saying, "I respect you. This is your loss, it's mine too, but I am not on the same level as you."

He later wrote about his experience for the National Fire & Rescue Magazine in the December 2001 issue.

Watch the video to hear Heller's thoughts and see his photographs from 9/11.