October 07, 2005

Reliving Sept. 11 at Ground Zero Museum Workshop

It’s still September 11 at the new Ground Zero Museum Workshop.

The broken clock is stuck at 10:02 a.m., just after the south tower fell. The walls are filled with the images of firefighters amid tons of wreckage. They are searching, sometimes weeping or praying, and at one point, standing guard over a flag-covered body.

The paper wall calendar is torn to what you already know: "Today is 11, Tuesday, September 2001."

The calendar and clock were recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center by Gary Marlon Suson, the only photographer given permission by one of the fire unions to take pictures at the site while the recovery effort was underway.

Last month as the city was memorializing the fourth anniversary of the attacks, Suson opened his small museum, just a single room painted all in white. It is filled with items from the site classified as "discarded refuse" and dozens of pictures he took during his seven months at Ground Zero.

This is not an easy museum to visit. You won’t be subjected to an endless video loop of the towers falling, but instead it presents an intimate portrait of the people who showed up at Ground Zero every day for months, digging for co-workers, brothers, and sons.

"When you saw it on TV, it seemed very unreal," said Clarissa Deslauriers of Round Rock, Texas, who was visiting the museum workshop just days after it opened. "Here, it’s more close. It’s like you’re standing next to the person as they’re really going through everything."

Look one way and you see firemen weeping, another way and you see remnants from the wreckage, in another direction a video plays an interview with a fireman, his bulky mask pushed down to his neck, his eyes starting to water as he talks. Photographs of a rescue dog, a nearly destroyed subway station bearing an advertisement for the movie "Collateral Damage," and a scorched bible opened to Genesis 11, "The Tower of Babylon," with the highlighted phrase "let us understand each other."

The museum opened its doors as emotional debate continued about the fate of the memorial that will be built at the Trade Center site. "Millions of people go down to Ground Zero. They don’t really understand. When they come here, they can kind of begin to understand," Suson said. "People should have an opportunity to view this history now. Why should they have to wait five to seven years?"

As with just about all the memorials associated with Ground Zero, not everyone agrees with how Suson has handled the exhibit. He's been criticized by some fire department officials and others, but Suson says he has the blessing of plenty of firemen and their families. He uses words like "tasteful and respectful" and talks of his moral responsibility to show his work so that people don't forget the nuances of the tragedy.

In an interview in his museum workshop, Suson was asked where he was the morning it happened. "I was on the roof of this building shooting that picture," Suson says, pointing to a black and white image mounted close to the floor. It shows one of the towers as it starts to fall.

At the time, Suson was an actor with a photo lab in the Meatpacking District. That photo lab is now the permanent home of his museum.

About two months after the attacks his photo web site, SeptemberEleven.net, came to the attention of officials at the Uniformed Firefighters Association. He was invited to photograph the work at Ground Zero, under the condition that none of the pictures would be shown publicly until the recovery work was complete.

Suson, like many of the people who spent a significant amount of time at Ground Zero, has medical problems including diminished lung capacity and abnormal blood gas levels. He’s received government compensation for those injuries, money he’s used in part to open the museum.

The museum’s 501(3c) not-for-profit status is pending, but it’s currently operating under the non-profit ID for Trauma Response Assistance for Children, one of the six charities that receives the museum's funds. Other sponsors are paying for salaries and rent so that 100 percent of the admission price can go to the charities, Suson said.

Museum proceeds go to the Uniformed Firefighters Association Widows and Children’s Fund, September 11th Families Association/WTC Tribute Center, HugsAcrossAmerica.net, Trauma Response Assistance for Children, Firefighter Ralph Geidel 9/11 Fund and the Brian E. Sweeney Memorial Fund.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday by appointment only by calling (212) 802-7197. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, students with ID and children under 12. Postcards sell for $9 and posters are $35. The website selling the posters notes that "(a)fter the costs of printing posters are deducted, EVERY PENNY of these sales goes to these funds."

The museum is located in the Meatpacking District on the second floor of 420 W. 14th Street. Map.

Earlier: Ground Zero photographer discusses new museum
Ground Zero to get visitors center, guided tours
Sept. 11 timeline installed at Ground Zero
Ground Zero, to go or not?

October 7, 2005 11:03 AM in Museums

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