The last time I was at the World Trade Center was sometime in July (I believe) when I went to see the studios of 15 artists at the Worldiews on the 92nd Floor. I walked throughout the space, feeling mildly giddy at being up so high.
Between bouts of staring out the windows, I looked at the art. Most of it was pretty tepid, but a few artists really stood out. I was mostly overwhelmed by the view, the clarity of blue sky meeting dark earth in Brooklyn, the reality of standing in the heavens.
One artist at Worldviews, Michael Richards, died in the tragedy. I remember his work and while I wasn’t moved then, I am now.
A lot of folks have recorded the tragedy in photographs. The ones at Ultraradio are pretty overwhelming. They closely approximate what I saw that day, and what many of us felt when we realized we were alive. The site allows the images to speak to that day without commentary — a rare gift.