September 11, 2007
'Here is New York' 9/11 photos return for anniversary
This one is for the New Yorkers.
The New-York Historical Society today open "Here is New York: Remembering 9/11" using more than 1,000 photographs taken mainly by New Yorkers in the aftermath of the terror attacks six years ago.
 At the Historical Society, the pictures are hung with string and paperclips, just as they did starting just days after the attacks, in a storefront at 116 Prince Street. That SoHo storefront was packed for months, mainly by New Yorkers.
"Prince Street became a place of healing," curator Marilyn Kushner said during the media preview of the exhibition last week. ""It's the story of how we all reacted then. I wanted to do it justice."
The thing about this exhibition is that even if you lived through those days during and just after the attacks, you have probably forgotten a lot of things, or never knew all that happened in part because there was just so much of it.
In the days before cameraphones, New Yorkers picked up cameras and documented what was happening. Hanging on the wall, there are indeed pictures of the planes, the explosions and scared people covered in dust. But there are signs -- from "You will pay bin Laden" and "REVENGE" to "Our grief is not a cry for war" and a parks sign with the word "pigeons" scraped off to say "Please do not feed HATE." There are images of MP soldiers on streetcorners, a Red Cross ship on one of the rivers, "missing" posters covering every inch of a phone booth, and even a rescue dog looking profoundly sad.
The Prince Street gallery opened September 25 and was visited by tens of thousands of people before it closed in the fall of 2002. (And raised money for the Children's Aid Society WTC relief Fund.) Its pictures were put into a book and put on tour. Several of those images were enlarged and displayed at the World Trade Center site in the past year.
The original Here is New York website is also online.
In the text introducing the museum exhibition, there is a quote from Michael Shulan, one of the Prince Street organizers. He said it was a place people came "to work through their emotions and to take measure of what happened."
In addition to the pictures, there are a few Sept. 11 artifacts also on display, including the contents of a JP Morgan safe deposit box, whose contents were badly charred even while closed and locked. But the first thing you see in the lobby is a piece of airplane. It's stark, though uncertain description, serves as reminder of the powerful impact and the the many unknowns left in the rubble" Airplane landing gear fragment from American Airlines Flight 11 or United Airlines Flight 175."
The exhibition is open to the public for free today. It runs through December 31. The N-Y Historical Society is located at 170 Central Park West.
Image credits: The bottom image is from the collection; it was taken by Susanne P. Lee. The top two were taken at NYHS during the media preview by NewYorkology's Amy Langfield.
September 11, 2007 07:42 AM in History, Museums, Sightsology, Upper West Side
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