Moving to NY in the mid 1970s and growing up as a young adult to adult there, the Twin Towers was synonymous with My Life In New York. For me, they were the anchors that held my life in place. While they were criticized for years as being architectural disasters- two monoliths entirely out of context to their environment- for me, they were pillars of utter strength and power. Which is why, I believe, their crumbling to dust left all of us feeling entirely helpless; as I too believe everyone felt similarly to how I did. Perhaps they were not the greatest achievements in architecture, but they surely were the symbols of New York City and they established the skyline.
When I recently saw these photographs by Camillo Jose Vergara, it took me back to that time. I remember walked around them and peering up; they were utterly sublime in the best way. It was dizzying.
These brilliant images brought me back to that time, and made me reflect on the last 15 years we have been without them, sort of like the loss of a loved one, but in some ways fundamentally deeper. Right when the towers went down, I had lived around the corner from them. I could not go home, and my animals were left stranded in my apartment.
I was allowed to go there accompanied by police a day after - flashlights in hand we made our way up to our 4th floor loft and found the place a mess (as the 3 dogs and cats had free reign and managed to unravel the entire loft like a skein of wool). I recall the distinct small that permeated the air down there-and I will never forget it.
A month or so later, in mourning as the whole world was, I decided to rally together and publish a little book called AN ELEGY: TWIN TOWERS. An Elegy that pays tribute to those icons of the Manhattan skyline. In just two dozen images, the editors have created a timeless and fitting tribute to the Twin Towers. From the calm grey cloth-subtly blind-stamped with an outline of the buildings-to the end-pages which perfectly evoke the exterior facade of the buildings
Twin Towers: An Elegy. Text by Vicki Goldberg and Marla Hamburg Kennedy. Picture This Publications, New York, 2001. 40 pp., 25 color and black-and-white illustrations, 9½x11".
Ysabel LeMay's phantasmagorical nature photographs defy all odds. In a world where nature photography has been done to death, LeMay' creates unique images that radiate with awe.