After the destruction of the World Trade Center, I was compelled to search my images of downtown New York--at first, just to remember what I could no longer see: the view of the Towers from my studio on Mott Street.  Looking through 15 years' worth of slides and photo collages, I found more shots of the Trades than I'd expected; and I discovered that, more than I recalled, the Towers have been a backdrop to my life--an easy setting for portraits, the envied view from various lofts, studios and sublets I've stopped in during those years.

Like the sea in San Francisco or the mountains in Seattle, they were a physical presence that symbolized the city, especially downtown.  And they conferred by that simple presence out our windows, down the street, or in the background of our photos, everything we new New Yorkers imagined and needed the city to be: Yes, they said, This is the Place.  And human creations can become geography, with the unquestioned belonging and rightness of nature.            NEXT

View from Mott Street, 1991