‘Here Is New York’ exhibit arrives
Acclaimed photo record of Sept. 11 debuts at School of Journalism

14 November 2001 | By now many have experienced or heard of the haunting photography exhibition, "Here Is New York," that sprang up in Manhattan in the weeks following Sept. 11.

Conceived by writer Michael Shulan and New York-based photographer Gilles Peress, a senior research associate with Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, and with early collaboration from editor Alice George and photographer Charles Traub, the grassroots exhibit quickly grew to more than 1,000 photographs, all taken the day of Sept. 11.

Some 200 images from “Here Is New York” arrived last week at the Graduate School of Journalism, where they will be exhibited from Nov. 18 to Dec. 21 in one of the show’s first forays outside New York City.

A wide range of photos will be on display — “dramatic photojournalistic images, and also images that are kind of quiet,” said Ken Light, curator of the journalism school’s Center for Photography, whose students have done yeomen’s service to mount and advertise the show.

As its subtitle, “A Democracy of Photographs,” suggests, distinctions between professional and amateur contributors have been set aside for this egalitarian response to the Sept. 11 tragedy. World-renowned photojournalists sent to Ground Zero get equal billing with unnamed New Yorkers who captured the reactions of people in the city’s outer borroughs with their point-and-shoots.

The School of Journalism is making a deliberate effort to follow the “exhibit footprint” established in New York. As in the original show in Manhattan, each image will be identified by a number — not title, caption, or photo credit. Viewers may purchase any photo in the exhibit for $25, with net proceeds going to the Children’s Aid Society WTC Relief Fund.

“Images are so powerful, you don’t think about the photographer so much,” said journalism graduate student Doug Merlino, who helped hang the show over the weekend. “You don’t need to be a professional when something like that is happening in front of you.” A news photographer was killed when the second tower collapsed. A photograph of his camera and press pass, as well as the photo he took just before he was killed, is included in the exhibit, Merlino said. “They found him later and they developed his film.”

The exhibit opens Sunday, Nov. 18, when photojournalists Ed Keating of the New York Times and Susan Watts of the New York Daily News share impressions of what it was like to be on assignment at the World Trade Center. The talk will be held from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the journalism school auditorium, 105 North Gate Hall. “Here Is New York” will remain on view for the campus community and the public through Friday, Dec. 21.