... and that was New York.
We were running for the money and the flesh...”
Let me borrow Mr. L.Cohen’s words (from the beautiful “Chelsea Hotel no. 2”) for a little tribute on the 20th anniversary of the day that changed our world.
I shot these Kodachromes in 1997, during my very first travel to the US.
I didn’t have a clue that the long decade started with the fall of the Wall was going to end with this other fall and that even stronger walls would then be raised. How could I imagine that the hope born from the death of ideology would be replaced by the despair born from religious fanaticism?
“America” was the big, luxurious patisserie and I was the small-town boy pressing his nose against its window: skyscrapers, neon lights, suspended bridges, deserts and canyons... a full load of icons.
I did not scroll the slide projector trays with the picture taken during that trip for ages: maybe it’s time to digitize a few of those memories (I promise I’ll scan them better than in this miserable shot, that may be perhaps salvaged if watched on black...)
Excellent images and narrative. Never Forget 9/11/2001. I will never forget walking through the Twin Towers while visiting New York. Nor will I forget watching on television as the terrorism unfolded in real time while getting ready for work on what I thought was going to be just another day.
Oh,Domenico...your *Words*! My eyes seldom tear up, but you got me...that frozen-in-time memory when our phone rang around 5AM with our daughter telling us to turn on the television...sitting with my hand over my mouth in disbelief at the burning tower, and then...the building dissolving into shards of glass and my head beginning to shake side to side (NO!!!!!)...uncontrolably at what was happening before my eyes. The press never showed that video image again. but in that moment, I knew our world was about to change... To my further horror and disbelief, I read in recent days that students and educators feel we should "tone down" the emotional rhetoric about what happened that day"...let's not "melt the Snowflakes" who were coddled for far too long! Philosopher, George Santayana, wrote, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." God Forbid! Sharing here with @seattlite and @louannwarren as well. I know they'll also understand what I'm saying!
We were changed forever even if we had only visited NYC. We had visited the Statue of Liberty just a few weeks earlier and I remember showing my young sons the towers.
@louannwarren@juliedduncan@ludwigsdiana@seattlite@joysabin@jgpittenger@bkbinthecity thank you all for your kind comments and favs! This was really not intended as a “photographic” post: making it to the TP is quite undeserved. @Weezilou thanks to you, too, of course: that quote from Mr. Santayana is one of my mantras since long. I do remember I was just a kid when reading that it was painted on the wall of the hall where the 913 members of the People’s Temple committed mass suicide. It was 1978. I bring with me that controversial message: we have to, we can’t but remember the past. But is it that remembering the past implies that there’s only one and extreme measure to prevent repeating it? 43 years after, I don’t have an answer.
I like this just as it is.