the falling man is the title of an article about a photograph taken by richard drew at 9:41:15 a.m., on september 11, 2001. the story was written by tom junod and appeared in the september 2003 issue of esquire magazine. it is about the world trade center during the september 11, 2001 attacks in new york city. the man in the photo, jonathan briley, is known as "the falling man". he himself had worked in the twin towers and he as many other coworkers had jumped out of the twin towers.