What remains of those immediate days and months that followed 9/11? In the present day, can we locate any of the fervor or any of the prolonged fear caught and framed for the next generation to see? Is there a marquee that still hosts the feelings of a terrorized America?

 

The photos in this book capture the scenes outside the events of 9/11. Victor Spatafora, the photographer, was a student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago when he captured these images taken between September 11 and December of 2001. He drove through urban environments in Chicago and also visited rural areas in Wisconsin and Illinois.

 

A flash memory, like 9/11, is one where everyone seems to remember the details of their day (e.g. where they were, what they were wearing, eating, etc.). This book provides a time capsule of our necessary reaction to fathom what happened and how we needed to pad the devastation in our minds.