Here is New York

By Reggie Nadelson Exhibition curator and reporter for Here is New York

The story of how a small photographic tribute to the victims of 11 September became an international exhibition is the subject of a new BBC documentary, both called Here Is New York.

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Exhibition preview

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Click here to watch the documentary: Here Is New York

"It was only when I saw my picture that I was sure what had happened," said Jo Jo Capestro, a woman who walked down from the 87th floor of Tower One that day.

People wandered in to look at the pictures, some ran out...others cried.

Reggie Nadelson

That day was, of course, 11 September 2001. There aren't any other "that days" in New York, not anymore.

History is divided, before and after, and for some seeing what had happened to them in a photograph was the only way to come to terms with it.

Here is New York is the story of 11 September in pictures, it is the story of Jo Jo and thousands of others.

Cops and firemen

Jo Jo Capestro

It began when a few friends in downtown Manhattan hung up some photographs on a washing line in an empty storefront.

They had pictures of people caught in the attack, a box of lemons covered in ash, cops and firemen and mourners. These pictures were taken by amateurs, professionals and firefighters.

People wandered in to look at the pictures. Some ran out, unable to confront what had happened. Others cried.

By October people were queuing for hours to get in. The show became a phenomenon and TV crews showed up. The famous came, among them Bill Clinton and Elton John.

The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible

Reggie Nadelson

One young woman from Texas said her mother was so moved by the pictures she wanted to give them to all of her employees for Christmas. She left a cheque for $23,000.

Community

Even with the smoke from Ground Zero still heavy over lower Manhattan, people wanted to help. For the first time in our history we were a war zone.

Compared to other parts of the world, 3000 deaths might seem marginal. Other places may have experienced worse.

But this is our tragedy in our backyard. I had lived all my life within a mile of the World Trade Center.

By October, I was already selling copies of the photographs for the children who were victims of the attacks. We became a community of neighbours.

Visitors came from Alaska, Prague, Finland, Texas, Toronto and Jerusalem.

And from New York, including firefighters who came and saw images of themselves, and others, taken on "that day".

People bought the pictures, sometimes to hang on their walls, sometimes to keep as an archive for their children and grandchildren, or sometimes just to remind them.

Remembering

"Americans don't want to forget," Charles Traub says, "it is a reminder of the events. A reminder that we're a very connected culture."

By Christmas, I realized there was a documentary in all of this and we began filming a number of the subjects of the pictures as well as the photographers, the buyers and the exhibition volunteers.

Like the pictures, a film would maybe remind us of the fragility of it all.

The exhibition, and consequently our film, take their titles from E.B. White's book called Here Is New York which was published in 1949 not long after the birth of the atom bomb.

The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now, in the sound of jets overhead and in the black headlines of the latest edition.

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Here is New York will be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, 8 September at 2000 GMT / 2100 BST and will be streamed on this website.

Reporter: Reggie Nadelson
Producer / Director: Leslie Woodhead
Executive Producer Farah Durrani

The Guardian newspaper is hosting the exhibition in the UK from September 11 to 5 October at 60 Farringdon Road, London