September 11 Digital Archive / "Satan in the Smoke" Emails

"Satan in the Smoke" Emails

On the morning of September 11, immediately after two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, photojournalist Mark D. Phillips took a picture that would prove to be one of the most evocative and disputed images of that tragic day. Many peple later construed the image of the smoke in his photo of the burning buildings to compose the face of Satan. These e-mails related to this picture provide a revealing portal into Americans' responses to the attacks in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

Dearest Mark,Please know that the picture you captured of a face, that many have come to associate with Satan, should actually serve as a blessing. Everyone knew that the evil one had his signature on...

Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-7 Content-Description: HTMLMark , I saw these pictures and it is my understanding that you took the one on the left. Is it true that this (these) pictures...

Mark, My brother, deeply religious, lives in Florida. as soon as he saw the picture he recognized it immediately. The image is the same image that has been on a former bank building in Clearwater,...

I don't know if that picture is true or not, but I believe God will get us through this act of war.\nFri, 21 Sep 2001 20:24:47 EDT\ninfo@stellarimages.com\nBallOfDisco@aol.com\n\nGod Bless America!\n...

People kill me, they always see the worst. In Mark Phillips photo I see something totally different. Remember, there were about 50,000 people in those buildings, only 6000 died, it could have been m...

Read Psalms Chapter 46, Ch.55:22 and Ch. 91 and Isaiah Chapter 41:10, 13 & Chapter 43:1-3 Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : ...

I know you have received many e-mails, but I just wanted to commend you on your excellent photographic work. Like the rest of the world, I stood in horror as I saw those incredible twin towers burn...

Mark;How are you doing theses days? I hope all is well with you these days. Not much else to say.Take care;GuyContent-Transfer-Encoding: 7bitContent-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="gsolima...

Mark I pray that this photo has not been doctored with all the technology we have. To many people have been hurt already and this is really scary if it is true. However, why weren't the Heavenly image...