“In the moments after the collapse of the towers I was overcome by a deep impulse to help, to save, to sooth, but being away on Cape Cod, there was nothing I could do. Making my way home to New York several days later the first thing I did was to go downtown. Standing in the crowds at the perimeter, five blocks north of the zone, I raised my camera simply to see what could be seen. From behind me came a stern voice and a hard blow on my shoulder, “NO PHOTOGRAPHS, this is a crime scene” barked by a female police officer who ordered me to move on. When I asked, “What about the Press?” she shrugged and pointed to them, penned in, a block further north. I left and walked uptown still smarting from her jab. Yet within a few blocks that blow turned into consciousness as I saw what I had to do. To me, no photographs meant no history. I decided at that moment that I would find my way in and make an archive for the City of New York, which would describe the impact of the devastation on lower Manhattan.”
-Joel Meyerowitz
The World Trade Center Archive consists of over 8,000 images, and was created with the sponsorship of the Museum of the City of New York, to whom a set of digital files was donated for their archives and for exhibition. The Archive, is an historic, photographic record of the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and the neighborhood as it evolved. The U.S. Department of State mounted 35 exhibitions of this work and, since their inauguration by Colin Powell in Spring 2002, over 4 million people have seen these shows from Jerusalem to Islamabad, Rome, Paris, London, Kuwait, Moscow, Istanbul, and 200 other cities.
Joel Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 150 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. He is a “street photographer” in the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, although he works exclusively in color. As an early advocate of color photography (mid-60s), Meyerowitz was instrumental in changing the attitude toward the use of color photography from one of resistance to nearly universal acceptance. His first book, “ Cape Light ,” is considered a classic work of color photography and has sold more than 100,000 copies during its 20-year life. He is the author of 15 other books, including “Bystander: The History of Street Photography” and “ Tuscany : Inside the Light.” He is a Guggenheim fellow and a recipient of both the NEA and NEH Awards.
Support for the project has been provided through the generosity of Fuji Photo USA, Adobe Corporation, Epson USA, Jeff Hirsch's Fotocare, People Magazine, The New Yorker, Heidelberg USA, Mamiya America, and Polaroid Corporation. |
