September 11
For several years we have made a post on 9/11. I'm a native New Yorker and 24 years after that horrific incident, making that post still wrenches me. As a kid, driving with my parents down FDR Dr. past the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, I could watch the successive stages of the Twin Towers being constructed as they they rose majestically into the skies on the other side of the island for almost five years. As a teenager, I spent quite a bit of time in the Village and Lower East Side, and the towers stook like sentinels over it all. Later, my brother worked in the towers for U. S. Customs for several years. On his lunch breaks, he would run the towers' stairs as part of his exercise routine. The towers were a landmark, a north star, a calling card, a symbol of New York, an icon. And when they fell, we all fell with them. There is still a gaping hole where they once stood, and I still bear that emptiness. I still haven't visited the memorial, it's just too raw. After 24 years I haven't gotten over it; I suppose I never will.
So, on this September 11, instead of dwelling on the sadness of that terrible day, I thought I'd present images of the Lower East Side where I spent some of my happiest and most vibrant days in New York City. Thinking of the great pleasures of the city helps to cope with its tragedies. These images come from the photographic essay Remnants: Photographs of the Lower East Side, with photographs by New Mexico husband-and-wife photographers Janet Russek and David Scheinbaum, published in Santa Fe by Radius Books in 2017.
The selected images offer of a portrait of the people, street life, chaotic commercial properties, eateries, and the contemplative space of the Eldridge Street Synagogue. We end with the iconic Katz's Deli founded in 1888, practically the only place I ate in the Lower East Side.
View our other 9/11 commemorative posts.
