9/11

Djarum

All-Pro
Location
Huntsville, AL
Name
Jason
13 years later.

Probably *the* most iconic image of my generation.

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Every year I seem to stumble onto the rebroadcast of that horrible morning from the Today show and whenever I do I end up watching for a while and am transported back to that beautiful but horrible day. We're not all that far from NYC and it was just as remarkably crisp and beautiful down here as it was up there that day. Really fascinating listening to them and watching events unfold with the reality of that day more than a decade in the rearview mirror. Hearing hardened reporters and journalists suddenly finding themselves in the midst of a war-zone. Of being in a meeting of regional representatives as the news trickled in and people pulling out their cell phones to check on friends and family in the New York area. And then finally giving up on the work-day altogether as everything closed down. Of not being sure where or when they might hit next. Of collecting my kids off the school bus as it arrived early that day and hoding them tighter than usual. A day not to forget, as if it would be possible...

That image is one of the few uplifting ones - most were too horrible for words...

-Ray
 
It's our generation's Pearl Harbor. No one will forget what they were doing when they heard the news.

Every Dec. 8th, my Dad does an FDR impression and starts his "Day of Infamy" speech...... the older he gets, the shorter it gets as the words fade from his memory. I think last year he just said "Yesterday......December 7th" (long pause while he thought) and then he just blurted out "war is inevitable".

I'm with John, I don't want to revisit it or play back that awful day again. Hopefully it will buried by the sands of time.
 
Certainly understandable. How close were you?

I lived 30 minutes away at the time. I was just in the building a couple of weeks prior. I saw the news in the morning. I saw the smoke in the sky as I drove to a meeting. I saw people at a rest area gathered around TVs, shocked at what they were seeing. My aunt and cousin, a physician and a chemist, volunteered in the weeks after; she to help the responders, he to sift for remains in the rubble. I was very fortunate that I did not lose friends or family that either commuted through the WTC station or lived in nearby Battery Park City. But the death is just one degree away; my mother's friend's daughter, a photography friend's daughter, etc...

Truth be told, they were ugly buildings, thrusting straight out of the ground from an unfriendly concrete plaza and generated wind vortexes that would chill you to the bone on a Winter's day. But, flaws and all, they were ours, and the cornerstone of the city in whose shadow I had grown up in and the city I had grown to love like no other. The Twin Towers were my personal compass. Wherever I was in the city, which was often those days, the Twin Towers would always orient me.

I'm with John, I don't want to revisit it or play back that awful day again. Hopefully it will buried by the sands of time.

To watch the footage again would just open up this empty hole inside and out would rush the same feelings of profound sadness. I don't want it completely forgotten, but I also don't want it turned into an "event".

On the morning of 9/12/2001, I drove down to Jersey City to try to make some sense of it all. I brought cameras, because they're like a safety blanket in times like this-something familiar and predictable that you can keep you mind busy with instead of thinking.

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September 12, 2011
by john m flores, on Flickr

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September 12, 2011
by john m flores, on Flickr

I share them now after over a decade being unseen on my hard drive. The site still stirs me.

The following spring, I took the following photo of the light tribute:

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Twin Tower Memorial, April 12, 2002
by john m flores, on Flickr

As the years go by I like it less. It's too pretty, glamorizing and glorifying a tragedy.

Ultimately, I don't know how to properly remember that day. I have no interest in the museum. I have no interest in the TV specials. It feels too raw, still.

I wrote this photo essay four years ago. Until recently, I had not been able to watch the videos from that day.

http://jpgmag.com/stories/16504

Thank you for sharing.

I'll end this ramble with some photos from 9/11/2011, at the Empty Sky Memorial in Jersey City, not far from where those first two photos were taken. I'm still trying to make sense of it all, and maybe that's my problem…the wanton killing of innocent people just makes no sense.

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Empty Sky - New Jersey September 11 Memorial
by john m flores, on Flickr

6138590301_7255c9f691_b.jpg

Empty Sky - New Jersey September 11 Memorial
by john m flores, on Flickr

6139141514_c780182a93_b.jpg

Empty Sky - New Jersey September 11 Memorial
by john m flores, on Flickr

6138594833_cf52a458df_b.jpg

Wayne Russo, Empty Sky - New Jersey September 11 Memorial
by john m flores, on Flickr

6138597145_77b4f04191_b.jpg

Empty Sky - New Jersey September 11 Memorial
by john m flores, on Flickr

6138598747_ddf3511b12_b.jpg

Empty Sky - New Jersey September 11 Memorial
by john m flores, on Flickr
 
I live in The Netherlands, but I remember the news hitting just as hard over here at the time. I was working at a newspaper publisher and I recall as the news started coming in a mix of disbelief and frenzy as the presses needed to be stopped and front pages needed to be rewritten. That night at home we all just watched in shock at those (in)famous pictures. I have been to New York a few times myself after 2001 and absolutely love the city, hope to go back there someday again.

I just remembered one of my favorite songs featuring this great city, for which the video was recorded only 4 days before 9/11. The Twin Towers are standing like nothing will ever happen to them...

 
I lived 30 minutes away at the time. I was just in the building a couple of weeks prior. I saw the news in the morning. I saw the smoke in the sky as I drove to a meeting. I saw people at a rest area gathered around TVs, shocked at what they were seeing. My aunt and cousin, a physician and a chemist, volunteered in the weeks after; she to help the responders, he to sift for remains in the rubble. I was very fortunate that I did not lose friends or family that either commuted through the WTC station or lived in nearby Battery Park City. But the death is just one degree away; my mother's friend's daughter, a photography friend's daughter, etc...

Truth be told, they were ugly buildings, thrusting straight out of the ground from an unfriendly concrete plaza and generated wind vortexes that would chill you to the bone on a Winter's day. But, flaws and all, they were ours, and the cornerstone of the city in whose shadow I had grown up in and the city I had grown to love like no other. The Twin Towers were my personal compass. Wherever I was in the city, which was often those days, the Twin Towers would always orient me.


To watch the footage again would just open up this empty hole inside and out would rush the same feelings of profound sadness. I don't want it completely forgotten, but I also don't want it turned into an "event".


I share them now after over a decade being unseen on my hard drive. The site still stirs me.

The following spring, I took the following photo of the light tribute:

As the years go by I like it less. It's too pretty, glamorizing and glorifying a tragedy.

Ultimately, I don't know how to properly remember that day. I have no interest in the museum. I have no interest in the TV specials. It feels too raw, still.

Thank you for sharing.

I'll end this ramble with some photos from 9/11/2011, at the Empty Sky Memorial in Jersey City, not far from where those first two photos were taken. I'm still trying to make sense of it all, and maybe that's my problem…the wanton killing of innocent people just makes no sense.

John, those photos you took the next day are very well worth sharing - beautiful and horrible both.

They were ugly ass buildings, and I actually sort of remember being in NYC as a kid before they were there. And then not liking them much when they were, but my god, what a view from the top.

I was actually in the City the night of the first bombing in '93. We didn't know what was going on but it took a hell of a long time to get into Manhatten that afternoon. And then sitting horified around watching a little 12" tv in a bar in Hell's Kitchen as THAT relatively minimal horror unfolded. And then watching 9/11 unfold on TV and just being beyond horrified that they pulled it off this time - actually bringing those enormous structures down. I couldn't believe it and in a way still can't.

I've been to the memorial once - I'm glad to have seen it but it was enough. I don't need to see the museum either. And don't like to see it glorified either. But I'm Jewish and grew up with CONSTANT reminders of the Holocaust and the importance of "never forget" and I've sort of adopted that for 9/11 too. I've found that, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, I end up watching some portion of the replay of the coverage from "Today" each year. And that's such a stark reminder because it's all seen through virgin eyes again, with just pure horror and no retrospective embellishment and from the same semi-detached distance most of us were lucky enough to see it from that day, with that low-def broadcast. And it works, for me at least. It's not too much, but it's enough. MSNBC replays a few hours of that every year - the straight broadcast without any commercials and they don't hype it, they just do it. And I hope they keep doing it for a few more years, at least...

It goes into the very long list of things I'll never make sense of but for some reason I feel obligated to remember and stay aware of and never forget just how insanely lucky and fortunate I've been personally. And realize that something just as horrible that we can't anticipate is probably just around the corner, always. It's always been that way and I don't see anything in the world today to make me think we've gotten beyond doing terrible things to each other... I don't really try to make sense of it, but I just feel obligated to think about these things every now and then, and no better time than the anniversary...

-Ray
 
Just getting started with my life with a somewhat naive perspective.....

Finally graduated, Moved from TX to NJ, bought a house, got married, new job... just 30 miles or so from NYC. It was suppose to be uneventful typical day.

I couldn't bring myself to see with my own eyes preferring to observe from a far. It was my reaction to focus on the buildings not the people. What really hit me was seeing the funeral processions soon after... still chokes me up when I think about it. Several years later, we finally decided to visit on the anniversary of 9/11. It was nice to see the progress. By that time, we had a young son and it was difficult to find the words to explain that day. We too ended our visit in Jersey City at the Empty Sky Memorial. For some reason, I rarely took my camera out of my bag. I guess I just wanted to soak it all in and didn't feel the need to capture what I was seeing. I guess I will never truly understand what is going through the hearts and minds of those grieving... and in a way, I'm thankful to be spared that experience.

This is the one photo I took that day... my wife just strolling through with my son.

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I found writing the essay and sharing the photos to be very helpful. Like John, I find my cameras to be my safety blanket in those times and I wish I had taken some photos inside St. Paul's church when the rescue workers used it as a resting area. I actually didn't have those rolls of film developed until four and a half years ago. I left my job in the towers a year before the attacks and find myself blessed. This anniversary week never goes by easily.
 
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