11 (Eleven): Witnessing the World Trade Center 1974 - 2001 - Hardcover

9780789308306: 11 (Eleven): Witnessing the World Trade Center 1974 - 2001
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A book by the photographers of CONTACT PRESS IMAGES

Within minutes of the attack on the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001, Contact Press Images, one of photojournalism's preeminent agencies that represents some of the world's greatest photographers, had mobilized half a dozen photographers to cover the event. In the following days, their reportage on the disaster would swell to include more than a dozen photographers who documented in a variety of formats and moods the assault on the towers, their collapse, the firefighters and rescue workers, stunned on-lookers and survivors, the torrent of debris blanketing downtown, and the smoldering wreckage at ground zero.

In order to honor the memory, as well as the cultural and social significance of the twin towers, the agency has compiled a memorial book comprised of 110 photographs (the number of floors of each of the towers), both color and black and white, made by twenty-two photographers affiliated with Contact Press Images, including David Burnett, Frank Fournier, Lori Grinker, and Annie Leibovitz, to be released in time for the first anniversary of the attack. Divided into two sections, the first part will be devoted to the horrific events of September 11. The second part will depict the Trade Centers in all their gravity-defying glory, which the agency had photographed since its inception. It will also include text by Nobel-laureate Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon, Sula), Minoru Yamasaki (chief architect of the World Trade Center), Jacques Menasche (Contact Press Images' writer and 9-11 witness).

The first year anniversary will mark a transition from the "moment" to the "monument." Rather than attempting to be a news presentation, Contact's Eleven is intended to be offered as a visual elegy marking the life and death of the great landmark. In this sense, it is reminiscent of the hundreds of memorial (Yizkor) books produced after theHolocaust by survivors whose villages no longer existed. Then, as now, the function was two-fold. First, as witnessing books -- that is, books that gave testimony to the disaster of the holocaust; secondly, as tributes, meant to memorialize the life and history of towns that had disappeared.

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From the Publisher:
Seasoned in the field covering wars and revolutions, professional photo-journalists, like rescue workers, are trained to head towards a crisis. Contact Press Images photographers, on the morning of September 11, 2001, did exactly that. Transfixed, and then quickly galvanized, they raced down to Ground Zero to shoot the horrifying events unfolding before the eyes of the world. Their searing images show the assault itself, the collapse of the towers, the emergency response personnel, stunned on-lookers, and the shocking wreckage remaining after the torrent of debris finally settled days later.

The 110 photos in the book not only document for all time the tragedy that brought the towers down, but also celebrate the buildings with extraordinarily beautiful images taken of them over the last twenty seven years. Twenty-two photographers are featured in the book including Frank Fournier, Lori Grinker, Annie Leibovitz, and David Burnett, accompanied by texts written by Jacques Menache, WTC architect Minoru Yamasaki, and a powerful essay by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. 11: WITNESSING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER 1974-2001 gives eloquent testimony to the disaster, but also functions as a tribute – memorializing the buildings that fell, and the lives that ended on September 11th. Contact Press Images has created an historic record to keep forever.

From the Author:
The Dead of September 11 - Toni Morrison, September 13, 2001

Some have God’s words; others have songs of comfort for the bereaved. If I can pluck courage here, I would like to speak directly to the dead--the September dead. Those children of ancestors born in every continent on the planet: Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas ... ; born of ancestors who wore kilts, obis, saris, gèlès, wide straw hats, yarmulkes, goatskin, wooden shoes, feathers and cloths to cover their hair. But I would not say a word until I could set aside all I know or believe about nations, wars, leaders, the governed and ungovernable; all I suspect about armor and entrails. First I would freshen my tongue, abandon sentences crafted to know evil--wanton or studied; explosive or quietly sinister; whether born of a sated appetite or hunger; of vengeance or the simple compulsion to stand up before falling down. I would purge my language of hyperbole; of its eagerness to analyze the levels of wickedness; ranking them; calculating their higher or lower status among others of its kind.

Speaking of the broken and the dead is too difficult for a mouth full of blood. Too holy an act for impure thoughts. Because the dead are free, absolute; they cannot be seduced by blitz.

To speak to you, the dead of September, I must not claim false intimacy or summon an overheated heart glazed just in time for a camera. I must be steady and I must be clear, knowing all the time that I have nothing to say--no words stronger than the steel that pressed you into itself; no scripture older or more elegant than the ancient atoms you have become.

And I have nothing to give either--except this gesture, this thread thrown between your humanity and mine: I want to hold you in my arms and as your soul got shot of its box of flesh to understand, as you have done, the wit of eternity: its gift of unhinged release tearing through the darkness of its knell.

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  • PublisherUniverse
  • Publication date2002
  • ISBN 10 0789308304
  • ISBN 13 9780789308306
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages176
  • Rating

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