New York City Photos

By now, not only are people in the states but people the world over indoctrinated in the New York City photos of the worst day in the twenty-first century. And many of us have seen the before photos or have watched a television show featuring the skyscape of the area BEFORE 911 but airing months after. So we have felt the haunting presence of the beautiful twin towers, the representationally massive moguls, the symbolically twin tycoons. But the last few years have yielded some of the most heart-breakingly beautiful of New York City photos in which the central subject is the now known Ground Zero area. For example, Suzanne Plunkett’s photo coverage of 9-1-1 (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special/photoessay/pages/attack_9.html) will remind you of the stunning, halting, frozen-in-time cavities that were once the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

But what I would like to call your attention to are New York City photos that have been taken post-911, and have been creatively altered in reverence, in memoriam, in commemorative care. Go to Worth1000.com (the site called Worth a 1000). Here you get more than New York City photos or 911 post or pre- shots. Besides thousands of modified cars (two cars melded to create an awesome prototype), gender swap creations (a celebrity of one gender is modified to have the attributes of the opposite gender), Renaissance painting revisited (the artists change the faces and bodies of a classic piece of artwork, so that a movie stars face and body takes the place of the original), and many many more oddities, you will find categories of photo-shopped, modified, creative constructions that turn the twin towers or Ground Zero into visions of empowerment.

You have to go to the Galleries section and click on W. There you will see a subsection titled WTC. Inside are stunning, creative pieces such as the following: in a couple of the re-done New York City photos, the twin towers have been re-built: they stand tall again, or taller that they once stood, reaching for the sky with the rest of the buildings against a cheerful clear blue sky. (And in the corner of the photo is the digital date, 1-18-09. Beautiful.

In another photo effort, the towers are rebuilt as turbo-charged futuristic architectural structures, complete with twin beacons beaming into the night sky. In another photo that has been crafted to appear to be a real photo, the towers have been replaced, and at their tops now bending they arc to form one single archway building. The sunlight is crafted to glint at the arch and to cast a teardrop-shaped shadow on the glistening water.

I won’t give away any more with my less than adequate descriptions. Instead, I send you to enjoy the redemption that is born of such loving, sensitive, and creative minds.