Regrets and Hope

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I have always wanted to visit but never get the chance to The International Photography center. Once flashing my cultural passport to the front desk people like a VIP, I stepped down to the basement of the center only to discover a very great exhibition that is on for the week “Remembering 9/11 by Francesc Torres, Gregg Brown, and Eugene Richards.”

The exhibit comprises of several photos that narrates the aftermath of the terrorist act that happened on an innocent September day. The series of photos starts with what immediately follows the crumbling of the towers, the rescuing efforts of the New York Police Department and the shocking gaze of onlookers. The first photo I saw titled “What searchers call “the pile,” the media calls “Ground Zero”;” in this photo I realize the superficial act of “labeling” that the media employed in the aftermath in an effort to stir up the nationalistic feeling that is still deep-rooted  in the public 10 years after the event and which forever changed the American Government’s foreign policy and the United States’ security for the worse. In another picture, NYPD’s rescuing effort seems so futile when they used “a grapple claw the size of a truck, 2001” to pick up a humongous cement wall that is sure to have crushed whomever underneath it. “The air is warm, thick as fog, sour yello, 2001” brutally visualizes the minuscule remainders of the victims scattered in the air after the attack; I felt a little bit sick starring at the picture. “While some onlookers weep, some call for revenges; this group from Mass prays, 2001” expresses mixed reactions spurred from the events: some cries, some wants war, some just find consolation in God. The mourning is also depicted in several photos. While some victims’ corpse were recovered, most victims could only be carried on in memories of the people following empty caskets and who starring at shred posters. I believe each of these pictures prompt a regretful feeling in each of us about 9/11: “What if we could have done something different? How happier a place the world would become had this incident never happened?” But there are still hope at the end of the tunnel. In “5/11/01 & 9/19/01 Fallen Hope (Accidentally Double Exposure),” the twin towers once again emerge from the debris of North Tower, representing the hope that filled America and that has helped us survive the unbearable lost until this day.

I really glad that I have seen the exhibit and I hope to visit a few more in my Cultural Passport. Check it out: http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/remembering-911