Seeing September 11
By Joanne Hinkel
It was not until the 1860s, through the power of the newly invented medium of photography, that civilians saw the brutal reality of war.
Photographs of the Civil War showed battlefields not as the glorious and triumphant scenes that painters had traditionally depicted, but
as they really were-graveyards.
One hundred and fifty years later no politician and no journalist can compete with the power of photography to convey the reality of violence
to unknowing citizens of the politcal body.
Each of the three times that I visited the one-room exhibition space filled with 1500 images relating to September 11 that made up Here is New
York: A Democracy of Photographs, I was amazed by how dozens of viewers swarmed the space but in complete silence.
Hung anonymously on clotheslines and against the walls, these images, captured by both amateurs and professionals, provide a multiplicity of
stories and viewpoints relating to the violence of September 11. They offer an expanse of representation that the time and space constraints
of newspapers and television could never allow.
The fact that anyone and everyone can donate photographs to the exhibit, and that no photograph is turned away, has resulted in a rich display
of the complicated emotions and effects surrounding that day, which includes not just images of firefighters and victims, but of memorials, war
protests, prayer vigils, and pre-9/11 shots of the architectural feat that was the World Trade Center.
While church attendance has been on the rise since 9/11, the memorial that is Here is New York allows for more contemplation and prayer than a
sermon ever could.
"#1257" shows a close-up shot of a goodbye note written to a man named Steve by a journalist who had never met him, but had gotten to know his
kids in the hours following the disaster. The note, taped to a fence, reads "I'd like to believe that if I write this and place it on this wall
with a flower, a candle and a model car that somebody will tell someone and that eventually it'll get back to you� ."
"#1345" shows the wife of Bill Biggart, a photojournalist killed at the scene, going through her husband's charred camera bag. "#2364" shows a
funeral where a soldier holds a baby that is smiling from ear to ear.
See these images for yourself: www.hereisnewyork.org. Although the exhibition left the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs in March, all the
photographs are archived and indefinitely available on this website.
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