Today marks 20 years since 2,996 people died in the 9/11 attacks. Phil Penman of Dorchester, a young photographer working in New York, found himself on the scene as one of the few photographers capturing the world's worst terrorist atrocity.

He tells Joanna Davis of his reflections on the day.

"There are not many days that go by when I don't think about it."

Those are the words of 9/11 survivor Phil Penman, a Dorchester photographer who found himself underneath the World Trade Centre in New York taking pictures at what became known as Ground Zero, just ahead of the Twin Towers starting to fall.

Then aged 24, freshly arrived in the US, Phil did what he knew best and started taking photos of the scene with his camera.

The former Briantspuddle resident was covering the horrific attack for an American picture agency and was underneath the building when it started to collapse.

At the time, Phil, a former Thomas Hardye's pupil, said: "It was terrifying. We literally had to run for our lives. I was close to World Trade Centre with my camera, but the debris and dust spread for blocks.

"When the first tower started to fall, I ran for it and ducked into a shop. I was covered from head to toe in dust and was very lucky to get away."

Dorset Echo:

Picture: Phil Penman

Phil, who still lives in New York today, said it was hard to process the scale of devastation he was seeing - something that's still hard to comprehend 20 years on.

"The power of photography is amazing, and if there's anything good that came out of that situation, I established good friendships with people I photographed that day. A special bond was created with people who were there that day and it's hard for people who weren't there to understand that.

Dorset Echo:

Picture: Phil Penman

"I was very apologetic about what I was doing, taking pictures of people among this destruction.

"It was like an out of body experience, there was this moment where you ask yourself if you can get in front of people with your camera not being able to believe what I was seeing but if I didn't do it we wouldn't have been capturing history."

Remarkably, the people Phil met that day in the most horrific of circumstances went on to become friends of his.

"The first person I spoke to was a man called George who was English and I reunited with him for the 3 month and 6 month anniversary and I'm still in contact with him.

Dorset Echo:

Phil's picture of Joanne 'Jo-Jo' Capestro, a 9/11 survivor covered in debris

Picture: Phil Penman

"In 2016 I donated my work to the 9/11 archive curator and she was looking through my images and saw someone she knew there.

"She was known as 'JoJo', her name was Joanne Capestro, and I met with her and and she asked me to photograph her a year or two later. We stayed in touch ever since and I was with her this weekend. There was also another guy who I photographed who I've had drinks with and I stayed with him and his wife in Jacksonville, Florida."

Dorset Echo:

Phil reunited with Joanne Capestro on Coney Island in 2018. Phil photographed Joanne, seen in the above picture, on September 11 during the World Trade Centre attacks in New York Picture: Phil Penman WWW.PHILPENMAN.COM

It's important to remember 9/11 and its victims for this 20th anniversary of the attack and at future milestones, Phil said.

"I think it's important that we don't forget these things, perhaps we would all love to ignore history but it's not how we learn. I'm sure everyone would love to forget World War II but it's important that we don't. "

Bearing witness to such a seminal moment in world history as a young photographer changed him massively, Phil said.

Dorset Echo:

Picture: Phil Penman

"I think it made me a lot more serious about life. You start evaluating what's important. It's been the same with the pandemic, you realise what's important in life. You don't know when your last day will be - it's given me more focus."

Phil is close to getting his US citizenship and has got married and is settled in New York. He remains memorised by the cut and thrust of Manhattan, living just two blocks away from Times Square.

And from time to time he will visit the 9/11 memorial and think about what he lived through and of those who weren't so lucky.

"It took me a few years to go down to the memorial and look at it. I think it's important to spend some time reflecting on that day."

Phil no longer works for an agency and now teaches photography. He is often asked about 9/11 and says he is not worried about being defined as 'a 9/11 photographer'.

"Everyone has their own opinion of what defines a photographer, some people know me for my street photography, some for September 11, it's however people want to define you," he said.

And while he finds it hard to understand how he dealt with the reality of the horror he was capturing that day, he says his determination and drive helped him.

"Everyone is going to handle something like 9/11 differently. There are war photographers out there who break down because of what they are seeing and then there are others who just don't know how they do what they do.

"It's difficult to know how as a photographer you can suspend your emotions from what you're seeing. To make it in photography you have to be so driven and focused, there's so much competition. But those who are willing to put in the extra hours can do it, it's 24/7 but it's obtainable."