Environment: City

Joel Meyerowitz

After looking at Francesc Torres's work on 9 11 I wanted to look at more work from the attack that would be more relevant to my project. I came across Joel Meyerowitz's series 'Aftermath' which was a nine month project that documents the clean up of ground zero. He was the only photographer that managed to get permission to photograph on the sight. The perous of the series is to serve the 'thousands that lost their lives, but also celebrates the tireless determination of the thousands of workers who assisted in the clean up process. 

'Aftermath'

I found these images very powerful because although they are of the remains of an attack that killed thousands they are not taken to appear solumn. The celebrations of the workers is very evendent as these images so the people and tools at work and I feel that their hard work and dedication shows great respect for those that died and were affected by 911. By having the machienes and people in the process of working also shows development which is part of my project as I am looking at what remains and has been restored since the war time photos.

There is a dark element to the images with the burnt remains but the blue skys in the background are idealic and the modern buildings behind stand are portrayed as tall and strong with the angle that they are taken from. This gives me the impression that the message that even though the event was tragic and a a huge impact, America still stand strong and can overcome it. In this image there is alot of light reflected off of the centre building. This building is also the highest. This may not be the photographers intension but my first thought was that this is a reference to heaven. As a christian country the belief that the victims of the attacks are at peace and have gone to heaven would be the most common and comforting belief so referencing heaven and 'walking into the light' would seem very appropriate