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The ever repeating news images of the collapsing World Trade Center seemed to many people unreal and never bridged the gap of the lacking emotional realisation of last year’s tragic events. A more comprehensible and human dimension of the tragedy is offered in “Here is New York.” The photo exhibition documents a very personal view of “9-11” as seen by a multitude of different photographers, professionals as well as amateurs. Jens Förster, IUB professor of psychology and guest speaker at the opening of “Here is New York” on October 27, 2002, in Bremen, explained the “ancient” cognitive power of such personal impressions.
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Nov
06, 2002]
“Here is New York” was first shown last fall close to Ground Zero in New York and later on in many other US cities. The modern art museum Weserburg in Bremen now presents 500 selected pictures from this collection that contains more than 7,000 photos. The concept of the exhibition is unusual: Attached to cords and without frames the photos are displayed anonymously. No clue distinguishes between the photographic work of photojournalists and non-professionals.
“Images of democracy” Michael Shulan subtitles this new kind of documentary exhibition. Shulan is a writer and one of the four American founders of “Here is New York.” Together with the photographer Gilles Peress of magnum photos, Charles Traub, head of the photography department of the New York School of Visual Arts, and Alice Rose George of Time Magazine he publicly called for photographic contributions concerning 9-11 topics. Thousands of pictures were sent. At least one photo per contribution was accepted. Beyond its singular pluralistic reflection of the terrorist assaults and the New York tragedy, this compilation of subjective images authentically documents human response in the face of catastrophe: panic, mortal terror, paralysis, pain, exhaustion, grief, sympathy, helpfulness, and kindness.
In his talk at the opening of “Here is New York” in Bremen, IUB professor Jens Förster, expert in cognition psychology, explained the psychological power of such “small emotionally charged images.” “In contrast to vast panoramic views of destruction the emotional component of these images activates brain areas much older than the cerebrum we use for conscious thought. The information takes the ‘emotional shortcut’ bypassing rational analysis and triggers a reaction within milliseconds,” says Förster. For the social animal Homo sapiens it is important to interpret the mental condition of fellow humans as it instantly provides useful information about the environment and potential sources of danger, he elaborated. Förster lived in New York for several years. Visiting the city three weeks after the terror attacks he lived through the shaking experience of personally witnessing the aftermath of the catastrophe and its emotional fall out.
The exhibition of “Here is New York” in Germany was initiated by the German Federal Center of Political Education. Since July 2002 it has been displayed in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Stuttgart among other German cities. Just as in the US there is no entrance fee. Prints can be ordered for $25 each via the Internet; the net proceeds from the sale go to the Children’s Aid Society’s World Trade Center Fund.
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"Here is New York" in Bremen |
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exhibition period:
October 27th 2002 to
January 19th 2003
entrance free
Place:
Neues Museum Weserburg
Teerhof 20
28199 Bremen
4th Floor
Opening hours:
Tue - Fri 10 a.m. -6 p.m.
Sat + Sun 11 a.m. -6 p.m.
closed on Mon
Visit the musem Weserburg
more info »
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