BIN LADEN

BOB STAAKE’S poignant image (above)
of two planes flying between the Twin Towers
showed a version of reality where the tragedy
never happened. Time magazine’s cover (below,
right) referenced the cover they ran at the time
of Hitler’s death in 1945 (below, left). In the

billboard-size version
of it in Times Square
(left), the windows
double as bullet holes.

ON MAY 1, 2011, President
Obama surprised the world
with the announcement that
Osama bin Laden had been
killed by American forces.
We learned that his shrouded
body had been buried at sea.
Harry Bliss’s image (opposite)
captured some of the somber-
ness of death amid the jubi-
lant celebrations that followed
the announcement. It also
doubled as a reference to the
government’s refusal to release
photographs of Bin Laden’s
mutilated body. I was sent
many images of Bin Laden in
Hell, like Anita Kunz’s image
of a burning skull (above)
and Barry Blitt’s darkly funny
sketch of Osama brushing
elbows with Stalin and Hitler
(right).

110