9/11 Memorial, Jersey City, NJ
The September Story Behind Every Photograph over the years has been devoted to imagery I’ve created in remembrance of the tragedy that rocked our country on September 11th, 2001. This year marks the 25th anniversary of that culture changing catastrophe. Our oldest son worked in NYC prior to 9/11 while living with his young family in Hoboken NJ until 2020. So, he was aware of the numerous tributes to the darkest day in American history, at least during my lifetime. On one of our weekend visits to see the grandkids my son steered me to this Jersey City tribute standing directly across the Hudson River from the site of the Twin Towers. I came away with the idea I wanted to portray this scene.
On subsequent visits I would check the Jersey City 9/11 Memorial on Grand St arriving before sunrise. Always looking for very specific conditions, finally during a weekend visit in April of 2017 the lighting and atmospheric conditions were exactly as I was hoping for. Arriving a bit after 5am it was still very dark, particularly the black granite monument with the etching of that fateful 9/11 morning. The polished black granite and the increasing brightness of the sky across the river would produce an enormous amount of contrast to deal with. Added exposure was needed to bring out the detail in the etching on a piece of B&W film. The added exposure and not paying attention to a rule most seasoned photographers understand and avoid…Reflections ! That rule, the Angle of Incidence Equals the Angle of Reflectance.
Angle of Incidence = Angle of Reflection
In simple terms, as seen in the photo, the angle at which a pool ball strikes the side bumper will be the exact angle the ball bounces off or away. In the case of this image, keeping the parallels plum meant standing directly in-front of the monument, hence the reflection of my camera and the foreground bounced directly back into the camera lens. That reflection on the 5×7 negative film cannot be corrected. That is, until I became fairly proficient with the power of Photo-Shop. The irony here, the View Camera that I had used for over 35 years and had become very proficient in real world applications has a work around. The Swing & Shift feature on the back of the camera can offset the angle at which the camera faces the black monument while maintaining perfect parallels, I simply didn’t process that option while setting up the camera during twilight. While I could have eliminated the camera’s reflection there would have been other reflections picked up from the ground and buildings behind me not allowing for a clean black monument face and etching.
Most serious photographers don’t “take” pictures, they “make” images born from their own emotions or connection to the subject. There are scores of little nuances a visual artist can draw upon to steer the viewer’s reaction to what the photographer wanted to portray. This particular morning offered the perfect foggy atmosphere needed to organically create the image I had always conceived. The image of the Twin Towers and brooding clouds surrounded by the stark blackness of the monument conveyed a sense of uneasy impending danger. Side note to that monument, the 9/11/2001 morning was a crystal clear blue sky morning, the artist who conceived the Jersey City monument chose to create a sense of drama with the addition of the ominous clouds…and rightfully so !
The heavy morning fog for my image was a perfect backdrop to the stark contrast of the polished black granite monument. The clouds engulfing the upper parts of the new Freedom tower would sublimely convey the idea that the most dominate city in the United States would soon emerge from the foggy aftermath of the worst American tragedy in my lifetime. As seen in the color photo following my image I could have easily added contrast to the clouds and sky. That would have been the exact opposite of what I wanted my image to convey. I chose to reduce the contrast of the sky to offer the impression of enveloping light and the city’s reawakening and resolve !
Hudson River Walkway Riverfront
Linked here in blue is Story Behind Every Photograph of the last 9/11 remembrance I created back on 9/11/2024 from an iconic location of the Manhattan Skyline.
9/11/2024