Tribute of Light

4 Responses to Tribute of Light

1. Jaquandor says:

   September 13, 2014 at 9:17 am

   There’s something amazing about each one of these photos…I thought I’d pick a favorite, but each one has something fascinating going on, whether it’s the tribute lights turning a cloud into a ball of light, or whether it’s a cloud in FRONT of the tribute light, segmenting it, or the first photo when the tribute light is just there but the spire from the new building casting its own glow into a cloud. Great photos.

   As for 9-11 itself, this year my daughter actually asked me where I was when it happened, which made me think about how banal our own settings can be at the moments when things change. I was sitting in a drive-thru waiting for coffee and a bagel when the second plane hit, and at that point, I didn’t even know that the FIRST plane had been a jetliner; the radio station I was listening to didn’t have details yet and I figured it had to be some guy who screwed up flying his Cessna two-seater. I’ve never forgotten the chill of hearing that ANOTHER plane hit, because obviously that meant it was an attack. What a terrifying, awful day that was.

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   • sheila says:

     September 13, 2014 at 12:19 pm

     Jaquandor – thank you. I stood there, on that overlook, for about 45 minutes, just staring. Big wind that night. It was beautiful and sad. The light beams look like souls.

     I think people out in the provinces were more aware of what was going on here that day than those of us who were here – unless you could get your ass down to the waterfront and look, you relied on television reports, or friends who didn’t live here. Also nobody’s phones worked here that day, so information was spotty. We also all thought it was somehow pilot error, that first plane, we assumed it was a small plane – we couldn’t see what was happening. But then I saw the second plane careen by overhead and saw the fireball when it hit the building. A terrible day.

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2. alli says:

   September 13, 2014 at 11:31 pm

   I wondered if the tribute was as powerful in person as it seems in the professional stills shown everywhere. Turns out, its probably more so. Feels like proof that sometimes simple is way more important than we realize.

   Great shots, Sheila.

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   • sheila says:

     September 14, 2014 at 8:43 am

     I am so glad it exists. The first year it showed up, I thought my heart would explode. There was some question about whether or not it could continue (funds, etc.) Obviously they worked it out. It is the perfect visual representation of what happened, simple and respectful, and you can lose yourself in it.

     Some of the professional shots are mind-blowing. I only know it from my perspective, across the Hudson, but I’ve seen other angles – from the lower tip of Manhattan, or from Brooklyn … it looks different depending on your stance.

     It’s a beautiful thing.

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