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Mario Tama / Getty Images
Tourists and onlookers view the World Trade Center site from the plaza of the Millenium Hilton Hotel on July 19, 2011 in New York City. The hotel is across the street from the World Trade Center and suffered significant damage in the 9-11 attacks. It was refurbished and reopened in May, 2003.
Mario Tama, a Getty Images photographer, was at home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, when he got the call that something big was happening at the World Trade Center site. After grabbing his cameras and coming around the corner, Tama saw the huge hole in the north tower and immediately thought of war – a subject he hadn’t covered before.
The events of 9/11 turned out to be Tama’s introduction to war photography, something he never wanted to do. Even after photographing Hurricane Katrina and the start of the Iraq War – two events with much human suffering – Tama says 9/11 is the “most shocking thing I’ve ever covered.”
So when Tama was asked to shoot a special series of photographs for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, he understood the significance. But living and working in New York City, he’d been to the site so many times over the years (by his estimation at least 125 times), he felt he needed a new way look at it in order to reinvigorate his senses.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
During a blessing of the World Trade Center cross before it was moved into its permanent home at the 9/11 Memorial Museum on July 23, 2011 in New York City. The cross is an intersecting steel beam discovered in the World Trade Center rubble which served as symbol of spiritual recovery in the aftermath of 9/11.
Tama was looking for a different kind of camera to shoot with when he ran into another photojournalist, Craig Ruttle, who suggested he check out the Lomo camera known as the "Sprocket – Rocket." Manhattan is vertical, a city island of skyscrapers and vertical spaces. But Tama sees the former World Trade Center site as horizontal, as a crater, so the panoramic nature of the Lomo format seemed right to him.
Additionally, he felt that shooting on film, something he hadn’t done since before the attacks, would help bring him back in time. In particular, Tama would be using black and white film, which he thought would better connect the current location with its history. Tama vividly remembers the day of the attacks, but because of the dust covering everything, he sees that day in his mind's eye as essentially black and white.
Over the last month or so, Tama went back to the site again and again with his Lomo and photographed it. He plans to continue going back there with his new camera until Sept. 11, and will be there on that day covering the memorial events.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
A couple embraces on the Hudson River waterfront with Lower Manhattan and the rising One World Trade Center in the background on July 6, 2011 in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Tama says he has been to Ground Zero so many times it often feels like "just another piece of real estate," which he characterizes as a "great thing" because it helps him cope. Still, he expects the approach of the anniversary to be heart-wrenching. But just knowing, he says, that people around the world care about what happened on 9/11 and can empathize what he and so many others are feeling will make it easier to complete his work.
More photos from Mario Tama's 9/11 project in our slideshow.
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Ten years later and it's still a hole in the ground, here alone shows how our country has become enfeebled.
There is way more than a hole in the ground. New York is not enfeebled, we are empowered by a moving memorial which will be open in one month and three days, a museum which is being completed and will be open next year and two skyscrapers on the site. There have been over 200 trees planted and there will be 200 more going in before the 11th. There is hope and growth. . .
what is so incredible is that the people responsible for this debacle are still at large. GW himself let Osama bin Laden off the hook on national TV. these two inane wars are now established as based on lies by the Bush/Cheney Cartel, and had nothing to do with the WTC destruction. I think a real investigation is cried out for by the dead, and should forced by those of us still alive. this isn't one we should let go by.
hey PV i'd say the hole is in your brain. there is one of the most beautiful momentments ever built where the towers once stood in memory of all the people who died that day
the only reason you make that comment is because you are a sour, bitter, little person and i bet you are a teabagger. let me guess, it's getting lonely in your parent's basement and you need to lash out? Rush was out sick today? beck didn't let you in his show when you called in?
A real unbelievable disgrace for not taking up Mr. Donald Trump's offer to rebuild the towers as they once were.The result of which would that they would have been re built years ago and standing tall once again.The bickering among all the players for this design and that design and who gets what was also sinful. Remember,remember the Empire State building was built in less than two years.
Beautiful yet haunting pictures.
Although I appreciate the photographer's attempt to put his own spin on the pictures by adding the classic film details, I find it distracting from the message of the images. I believe I would have felt a deeper connection if these images had been simpler and illustrated the raw emotions of the event rather than filtered through the photographers artistic interpretation.
I couldn't agree more. It's difficult to bypass his artistic spin. In many photos I can't detect that he's actually shooting the spirit of the new building or how he's honoring what was lost. These photos have no heart. My first impression was that the photos were lousy. Who wants to see up Guiliani's nose?
Having watched the destruction of the World Trade Center from my home and having a personal connection with September 11th I am so happy there is growth and progress being made there. It was nothing for a very long time, just a pit in the city. Seeing the progress of the buildings going up, watching the memorial grow into a place of dignity and respect for the dead has given my family a sense of closure. This will never be a completely healed wound but to be able to see the name panels and put my hand on their names and lower my head with respect will contribute to the motto "We will never forget". Seeing the soaring tower from where I live is a reminder that time is passing and there will be a shining example of the resilience of the city of New York and its people!! Thank you for your photographs and contribution, very well done!
The destruction of the World Trade Center reminds us all of how quickly our world can be changed forever. It can be an accident, a doctor visit or a terriost act that changes us and we are never the same again.
I do feel sad for the families lost in the 911 attacks. But I also feel sad for the iconic loss that many people come to New York to see. I was fortunate to have worked in the financial district many different times. I travel a good deal of time and back in the late 1980's to mid 1990's I spent a few weeks a year working at Bankers Trust (across the street from the World Trade Center) and on Broad Street and Hudson Street (all near the World Trade Center). On a couple of occasions I worked in Tower Number One for the New York Port Authority. At the time I worked as a software engineer on data systems. So I traveled all the time. The World Trade Towers amazed me. On cloudy days while walking back to The Vista Hilton I would look up to see the top of the buildings piercing the clouds. The buildings were truly an amazing engineering project. New York City amazes me anyway but the World Trade Center was special. You could actually navigate by looking for the WTC buildings from anywhere in the area (Jersey, Manhattan, Queens, Midtown, etc..). I hope that whatever ends up standing on that spot is as spectacular but I doubt it.
I didn't think much of the photographs at all. They were poorly composed and showed very little about what was actually accomplished at the site to date. Very disappointing!
Haunting images....
Still melancholy feelings. It is still hard to believe this occurred even 10 years later. What a sad thing for all the world to face.
Wow, they still make Tri-X? Sweet pics!
Congratulations and THANK YOU to father Brian Jordan for leading the fight for the preservation of the Cross
At Ground Zero... A major battle won by an Christian hero!
AMEN! I still can't believe that radical atheists were trying to keep that cross from being in the museum. What a shame that people would try to stop something that gave thousands of people hope and strength during those difficult few weeks just after 9/11. How selfish can people be?
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What is the logic in opening the memorial on September 12, and not on the actual 10-year anniversary of the disaster? Just asking....
Hope there will be no 9/11 incident happened again on this planet earth.
The only way you are going to keep National Security "failures" like 9/11 from ever happening again is to have subpoena empowered, security clearanced, and witness protected, INVESTIGATIONS when they have taken place. So far, that hasn't been allowed to happen with either 9/11, or the USS LIBERTY incident.
i cant believe anyone could find kodak film , fuji film is all i can find at walmart. good shopper mario .