Miami Photo Exhibit Marks 9/11 Anniversary
MIAMI (CBS4) - A little more than two weeks from now the nation will pause to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. While it's hard to believe a decade has already passed South Florida residents won't have to travel to New York, Washington DC or Pennsylvania to mourn this dark day in American history. A special exhibit has opened in Downtown Miami at the Miami Art Museum remembering what happened at Ground Zero.
Tuesday afternoon we walked around with Lt. David Walter of Miami Urban Search and Rescue Team as he observed several images of Ground Zero posted on the walls.
"I can't believe it's been ten years since it happened. It seems like it's gone by in a flash. It really does," Walter said. "Things have changed a lot for me. I'm a different person after this."
Like most of us Walter's life changed on September 11th 2001 but in ways most of us will never understand.
"I can almost smell, from being there, the smoke, the smell of jet fuel, the smell of everything that was in the pile," recalled Walter.
Walter spent 18 days at Ground Zero recovering the bodies of New York firefighters who rushed in as the towers were collapsing.
"A great deal of humanity just disappeared that day," said Walter. "They never found them."
The Miami Art Museum is remembering the tenth anniversary of the attack with a collection of Ground Zero photos by Joel Meyerowitz. He was the first and only photographer allowed on Ground Zero. Meyerowitz campaigned for two weeks before being let in.
"He was convinced that if a record did exist actually on the site, that it would be lost to history," museum curator Peter Boswell explained.
The photos span nine months capturing the disaster, the trauma, and the unthinkable. Boswell described one of the images that grabs him the most.
"It's a shot in a daycare center of all these jumbled up crib and everything. And you just don't know what happened there," described Boswell. "If there were kids there when it happened or if what part of the aftermath, your imagination just sort of goes to work."
As Walter walks around the room he said, "This binds us forever. This is all part of us. We are all part of these pictures."
Walters told us the images bring it all back: The smells, the feelings, and the heartache. He hopes the images at the Miami Art Museum do the same for visitors.
"This is an event that needs to be remembered. This is an event that is our generations Pearl Harbor. It's something that happened to us when we weren't looking, when we weren't anticipating it. We don't need to be put in that position again," Walter said.
In addition to the 24 images on a display is a book with hundreds more. There is a book for you to leave your thoughts about 9/11. The exhibit runs through November 6th and will be free for public safety workers and free for everyone in South Florida on September 11th.
For more information visit: http://www.miamiartmuseum.org/
