Faces of Ground Zero: A Photographic Tribute to America's Heroes was a traveling photo exhibition about the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. It was shown at several major cities in the United States, aiming to educate the public about the impact of modern urban terrorism. Faces of Ground Zero was one of the most widely seen exhibits about 9/11 and its aftermath.
The exhibit consisted of life-size photographs (9 ft × 4 ft framed images) of emergency workers, survivors, and relatives of victims of the attacks; some 272 people in all. (Some of the portraits included two or three subjects.) The aim was to capture the sense of loss, pain, and bravery of the time.
The touring exhibit was open to the public, free of charge. Made by photographer
Joe McNally, in the Moby C Studio, a few blocks from the "Ground Zero"
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site, often referred to as " Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...
in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, with "Moby C", the world's largest one-of-a-kind
instant camera
An instant camera is a camera which uses instant film, self-developing film to create a chemically Photographic processing, developed print shortly after taking the picture. Polaroid Corporation pioneered (and Patent, patented) consumer-friend ...
.
[''American Photo'' (Special Issue: September 11) January–February 2002 p. 56-57 & 90-91.]
A hardcover companion photobook, ''Faces of Ground Zero: Portraits of the Heroes of September 11, 2001'' (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2002) was published to commemorate the project with a foreword by
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...
and an original essay by McNally. A large percentage of the proceeds went to 9/11 charities.
Exhibitions
Throughout 2002, Faces appeared at
Vanderbilt Hall
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...
at
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...
in Manhattan,
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...
in Boston, The
Royal Exchange in London,
Union Station
A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...
in Chicago,
One Market Plaza
One Market Plaza is a complex of three office buildings at 1 Market Street along the San Francisco Embarcadero. The historic 11-story Southern Pacific Building, also known as "The Landmark", was completed in 1916, and incorporated into the ...
in San Francisco, and the
Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, has a museum with regularly changing exhi ...
in Los Angeles. The exhibit returned to New York for the first anniversary of 9/11 and was shown at
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...
in Midtown Manhattan.
It was shown again on the fifth-anniversary of 9/11, when it appeared at the
New York City Fire Museum
The New York City Fire Museum is a museum dedicated to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is housed in the former quarters of the FDNY's Engine Company No. 30, a renovated 1 ...
in Lower Manhattan.
To mark the tenth-anniversary of 9/11, the
Time Warner Center
Deutsche Bank Center (also known as One Columbus Circle and formerly Time Warner Center) is a mixed-use building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building occupies the western side of Columbus Circle and strad ...
(10 Columbus Circle at 59th St.) presented an exhibition of more than 50 images from the collection with new images. (That exhibition was known as Faces of Ground Zero: 10 Years Later.)
Publications
Many of the portraits of the exhibit later appeared in the following photobooks:
*''One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001'' (New York:
Little, Brown & Co., 2001) — Hardcover
*''In the Land of the Free: September 11 – and After'' (New York:
Life Books, 2001) — Abridged Softcover Edition
*''The American Spirit: Meeting the Challenge of September 11'' (New York: Life Books, 2002) — Hardcover
*''Faces of Ground Zero: Portraits of the Heroes of September 11, 2001'' (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2002) — Companion Photobook / Hardcover Edition
**''Faces of Ground Zero: Portraits of the Heroes of September 11, 2001'' (Time, 2002) — Abridged Companion Photobook / Softcover Edition with Alternate Cover
*''One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001 – 10 Years Later'' (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2011) — Updated Expanded Edition with Alternate Cover
*''In the Land of the Free: September 11, 2001 – 10 Years Later'' (New York: Life Books, 2011) — Abridged Softcover / Updated Expanded Edition
References
General references
*
*{{cite news , title=Faces of Ground Zero , url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1136092 , accessdate=August 15, 2020 , publisher=
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
Photography exhibitions
Images about the September 11 attacks