Friday, December 31, 2010

Brian Rose- WTC


If you're searching for something to look at this holiday weekend, you may wanna check out Brian Rose's WTC book. Although it definitely seems like ten years since 9/11- mostly thanks to the bludgeoning neanderthalism of life under the Bush regime, for someone away from his hometown, it still seems surreal that something so imposing a presence, so prevalent to the landscape is truly, permanently gone. That couldn't have been made clearer than when I returned to NY that first day they allowed flights back- as I headed downtown I suddenly felt strangely unbalanced, lightheaded, as if I couldn't walk a straight line. Turning my gaze upward, I then realized there was a hole in the sky, the looming presence of the World Trade Center was not dominating the patch of sky on my right where it should have been, where it seemed it had always been- and I was therefore actually, physically unbalanced without the "anchoring" effect it had provided upon that portion of the landscape! Clearly, I couldn't have been the only one who had undergone that spatial anomaly. The World Trade Center had ascended gradually into our consciousness, only to vanish in a torrent of trauma.

These photographs serve a fitting tribute.

2 comments:

Brian said...

Beautifully written, Stan.

The Berlin Wall, the Twin Towers--I seem to be in the business of photographing places and things that precipitously cease to exist. Even the Lower East Side to a significant extent.

It is a cliche--but really, truly--take nothing for granted. The things we are about to lose are right before our eyes, here and now.

Brian

Stan B. said...

Amen, Brian. Something I've always known- and experienced. And yet have to be constantly reminded of, as if in constant, active denial.