{"id":6434,"date":"2015-10-02T10:05:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T14:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/?p=6434"},"modified":"2015-10-02T23:20:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-03T03:20:33","slug":"new-yorkthe-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/new-yorkthe-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\/The Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wtc02b\"
\n<\/a>WTC 2 Observation Deck, 1981 — \u00a9 Brian Rose\/Edward Fausty<\/p>\n

The Walk<\/em>, a new movie by filmmaker Robert Zemeckis tells the story of Philippe Petit,\u00a0the French street performer, who clandestinely strung a cable between the Twin Towers \u2013 still under construction in 1974 — and proceeded to tightrope back and forth 110 stories above lower Manhattan. Thousands craned their necks upward in amazement as Petit walked the wire for 45 minutes. I haven\u2019t yet seen the movie, a 3D extravaganza, but it is getting good reviews for its vertigo-inducing special effects. It\u2019s a Hollywood version of Petit\u2019s feat \u2013 or performance art \u2013 not to be confused with the brilliant documentary \u201cMan on Wire, directed by James Marsh.<\/p>\n

Petit was arrested at the end of his escapade, but with public sentiment in his favor, charges against him were dropped in exchange for a performance in Central Park. His breathtaking walk between the Twin Towers has become part of the folklore of New York, made all the more poignant by the horror of 9\/11 a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\"petitsig\"
\n<\/a>Philippe Petit signature and pictograph — \u00a9 Brian Rose\/Edward Fausty<\/p>\n

Shortly after the destruction of the Trade Center, I sifted through my archive looking for photographs of the Twin Towers made over the years. One of the pictures I came across was taken from the observation deck on Tower 2 in the early \u201880s. I did a high-resolution scan of the 4×5 negative and discovered something unseen in my prints of the image, Philippe Petit’s signature and tightrope icon scratched into a steal beam. Petit\u2019s performance masterpiece, it turns out, was signed by the artist.<\/p>\n

As far as I know, it is the only photograph showing that long-lost signature.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/p>\n

I just saw the movie — it actually closes with Petit signing his name and drawing the little tightrope image as seen above. I have to admit to being surprised. It had to be based on my photograph. It’s true that someone from Zemeckis’ production staff contacted me a year ago about using one of my photographs in the film — but not the one with the signature. I expected it to be buried somewhere in the film, and in fact, it wasn’t used at all. Not to worry, I was paid decently. In the end, however, my accidental documentation of Petit’s signature plays a prominent role in the movie. I didn’t expect that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WTC 2 Observation Deck, 1981 — \u00a9 Brian Rose\/Edward Fausty The Walk, a new movie by filmmaker Robert Zemeckis tells the story of Philippe Petit,\u00a0the French street performer, who clandestinely strung a cable between the Twin Towers \u2013 still under construction in 1974 — and proceeded to tightrope back and forth 110 stories above lower […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6439,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434\/revisions\/6439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}