World Trade Center Survivors

memphisfoto:

World Trade Center Site • Lower Manhattan • 9.11.04 - 9:04am

(via memphisfoto-deactivated20130212)

A man seated in the graveyard/memorial at St. Paul’s Chapel. 

[Photo courtesy of http://wtcsurvivors.tumblr.com/ from St. Paul’s Chapel, NY.]

[Photo courtesy of http://wtcsurvivors.tumblr.com from St. Paul’s Chapel]

[Photo courtesy of: http://wtcsurvivors.tumblr.com/ from St. Paul’s Chapel]

[Photo Credit: http://wtcsurvivors.tumblr.com/]

I took these photos in the summer of 2011, a month or two before the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Each day that I went, construction workers were diligently manning equipment in order to put together these two buildings in the area where the Twin Towers once stood. Every day, it was also always crowded with people. New Yorkers sat contemplatively on benches with companions, simply watching the buildings go up. Many policemen also walked by, on what I assume were their daily rounds, just to catch a glimpse of the construction.

The air was grave as I traversed the streets, becoming lighter the farther from the area I got. Every time I returned, however, that mood returned. Everyone was curious to see what was happening behind the fencing, many of whom, I’m sure, had someone special in mind that they had lost. Every movement felt like a dream, as if everything in front of the construction site, every building and sidewalk and bench, was almost stuck in time, while the site grew.

I could feel the solemnity that had followed the attacks so long ago, the tense silence I’m sure followed after the dust had billowed and cleared. It invaded every sense - the silence. Along with it, though, there was hope. It was deep, deep in the silence, past the wonder and past the baffled it’s been ten years already? Time, in front of this construction site, was stopped. When the memorial was opened on September 11, 2011, people began to live again.

Hello everyone!

For all of the followers that have followed me from SeekingAequitas, thank you! To any new followers, welcome! 

While SeekingAequitas addresses women’s issues, equality, and humanism, this blog WTCsurvivors is dedicated to all the victims of 9/11 who sacrificed themselves or lost loved ones in the attacks. The project I intend to undergo as a young female filmmaker is to address September 11, 2001 in a documentary. In this blog, you can follow my progress as I visit the World Trade Center memorial and document the experiences of the people who survived such a terrifying and historical moment. I will be posting pictures from my many visits and blurbs about my ventures, as well as blurbs from my documentary.

I believe this will be a life-changing experience.

Come and join me!

Emilie