09/03/2026
September 11, 2001.
Say the date out loud and almost everyone in the room can tell you exactly where they were.
I was in my apartment in Manhattan, about a kilometer from the World Trade Center, when my assistant Mia told me to come outside. I looked up and saw the smoke. I picked up my medium format Pentax 67 camera with a 165 lens, almost without thinking, went to the roof, and started shooting.
For a moment it didn't feel real, more like a film set than something happening a kilometer away.
I went through one roll of film and had to decide whether to reload. Then reality arrived. I put the
camera down where I was standing and left it there. The first thing I did was go looking for my partner, who was two kilometers away, seven months pregnant with my daughter.
One frame holds the exact time it was made: 9:07. I've carried the same imprint in my mind ever since.
When I was asked to be part of an exhibition on this subject, I hesitated. Is it right to show something this painful? I think it is.
History needs many perspectives of the same event, the good and the bad.
Never Forget: September 11, 2001 is showing at CAMERA WORK, Berlin, from September 5 through October 2, 2026, see it in the gallery or on the virtual gallery at camerawork.de.
