"The date, September 11, 2001, now has a certain permanence, graven on ourcollective memory, like a very few others December 7, 1941, and November 22, 1963, dates which seem to separate yesterday from today, and then from now. They become the rarest of moments; ordinary people will forever be able to tell you where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news, as if the terrible deed had happened to them, which in some ways it did."
-from the introduction by David Halberstam
By now, the story of September 11 has been burned into our collective memory, but few have seen New York from the perspective of Magnum photographers. Eleven members of the legendary photo agency immediately dispersed from their monthly meeting in New York as the events unfolded to document the incomprehensible. Their photographs, by turns haunting, surreal, and breathtaking, are collected together in New York September 11, by Magnum Photographers, compellingly presented in this high-quality edition from powerHouse Books. From their various vantage points we are transported to Ground Zero to witness the destruction of the World Trade Center, the buildings' implosion which sent thousands fleeing through the streets from debris, only to return to the scene in quiet observation and respect for the rescue workers whose jobs had only begun-and of the mourners who had been gathering struck with grief.
In the recent wave of books related to the tragedy of September 11 Taliban histories, introductions to Islam, volumes of pictures and commemorative poems New York September 11, by the famed Magnum Photos collective, stands out as haunting tribute to the city, to the emergency workers, to the dead, and to the Towers themselves. David Halberstam poignantly reflects on that "rarest" of moments the kind that "separate[s] yesterday from today, and then from now" in his introduction to the volume, while, in 70 color and 20 b&w photos (most reproduced on two full pages) the Magnum Photographers capture the terrible destruction and, as in a shot of a sunset seen through the Ground Zero dust cloud the terrible beauty of that day. A portion of the proceeds to go to the New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Several members of the distinguished Magnum photography studio were in town for their monthly meeting on September 11 and went out into the city, training their cameras on the disaster at the World Trade Center and the people in the streets reacting to the horrible incident they were witnessing. In words and photographs, the photographers tell and show what they saw, and the result is a remarkable but disturbing firsthand account of that day and the aftermath, when New York City came to represent a latter-day Pearl Harbor.
Brad HooperCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
