ICP Visit

The International Center of Photography

The building itself was really quiet; the employees dressed in black added to the somber and serious feel of the place.

The 9/11 exhibit was incredibly powerful, more so than the actual 9/11 memorial. It exists in the same somber arena as the rest of the photography center, an ambiance perfectly matched by the artwork being displayed. The photos of Hangar 17 and its artifacts are raw. They’re not meant to be pretty or aesthetically pleasing; they just are.

Broken.

Mangled.

Damaged.

Bent.

The images capture the absolute wreckage of 9/11. The piles of wood, totaled cars, warped beams, and the myriad of empty and crumbling shells that are displayed here are real. The video footage taken by Elena del Rivero of the massive machinery shifting rubble at ground zero is disturbing because it is unmistakably something that happened. The rubble was real. I got this feeling much more in this exhibit than I did at ground zero itself.

This exhibit also showcased the human element of 9/11: The foggy picture in which the tower is barely discernible. The dark black smudge halfway down the building. It looks like a person falling (jumping?) It’s clearer than the building itself. It says something about the loss of a life.

The most powerful aspect of the exhibit, however, was the folded paper boat that someone had made inside one of the PATH trains that was trapped underground when the towers fell. It is a stark reminder that the people in the towers were humans. They got bored on trains and made origami boats. They didn’t wake up thinking their day would end early.

Sorry about that dark writing. The exhibit struck me as sad so I responded in like.