"Bill Biggart's Final Exposures"

By Dirck Halstead

Photographer Chip East was staring intensely at his laptop screen.

It was two weeks after two jetliners had plowed into the towers of the World Trade Center. His good friend, photojournalist Bill Biggart's body had been recovered from the rubble. His personal effects, including his cameras had been released by authorities to his widow, Wendy.

Biggart. a photographer, who had worked for an alternative New York picture agency, had been carrying three cameras with him, when he left his home in Manhattan that sparkling Tuesday morning, and started walking south towards the plumes of smoke. There were two Canon EOS1s film cameras. He was also carrying his Canon D30 digital camera. For Biggart, mastering the new techniques of digital photography had been a break-through.

When Chip East was handed the bag containing Biggart's gear by his widow, Wendy, he was convinced that no pictures had survived. The avalanche of falling debris had blown off the backs of the two film cameras. There were several rolls of film in Biggart's bag; however, the lids of the film canisters had been peeled back, allowing light to fall into the cassettes. Finally, East turned his attention to the digital camera. It was covered by ash. The lens had been sheared off at the flange. But when he opened the chamber that held the compact flash card, it was pristine.
 

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