In the past few days, as we approach the tenth anniversary of September 11th, 2001, I’ve been wondering what to post here, if anything. In the past six years on this blog, I’ve expressed most of my thoughts on the subject. While it is indeed startling that ten years have passed since that day, I’m not sure why a ten-year-anniversary is any more significant than a six-year-anniversary or a thirteen-year-anniversary, but I think that’s just because we all respond to even sets of ten.
I seem to remember that there was a moratorium of sorts regarding photographs from that day for a little while. People found images of the burning towers too jarring. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I took a bunch of pictures that day as well, but it’s never seemed appropriate or necessary to post them here or anywhere. This year, however, if you were put off in the past by pictures of that day, you should probably stay far away from the television, Internet and, Hell, you’re invariably better off staying inside with your shades pulled down and the lights off. It’s going to be everywhere. People love ten-year-anniversaries, and the media is all too happy to revisit virtually every single detail.
I’m a hypocrite, of course, because I work in media (and even co-penned my own commemorative piece this week about must-read books about September 11th). There are going to be tributes and memorials and timelines and shot-by-shot deconstructions (you can even watch almost every nanosecond of what was on television that day all around the world). It’s going to be strenuously difficult to avoid or ignore the anniversary.
For those directly affected by the tragedy, I don’t know if these sorts of anniversaries and their accompanying hoopla help or hurt. I can’t speak for them, but I’d imagine the family members and loved ones of my friend Mike from high school who died in his office at Cantor Fitzgerald in One World Trade Center feel just as heartbroken on the anniversary as they do on every single other day. I don’t imagine they’ll spend their time on Sunday watching the events replayed endlessly. But I could certainly be wrong.
In any case, moving forward, I don’t know if I’ll continue to weigh in on September 11th. We all lived through it, and we’re all still trying to understand it.
Instead of framing this post with an image from the day or yet another image of the WTC towers in flames, I decided to revisit one of my favorite photographs (I originally exhumed it here), that of the towers on their way up, probably shot sometime in the early-to-mid 1970s. I love how the SoHo that sprawls beneath still looks endearingly grotty and frontierish.
Lastly, I spotted the below clip on Gothamist last week and thought it was a fresh take on proceedings. Enjoy this montage of cinematic cameos by the Twin Towers. Can you name any films they left out? Off the top of my head, I noticed the “It’s All For the Best” sequence from “Godspell” is missing. What else is?
Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.
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