The Wake

The Wake
By Om Rupani
 

chashama 1351 Gallery
1351 Amsterdam Avenue
(between 125th and 126th St.)
New York, NY
 

August 27 - September 22, 2013

The Wake

chashama is pleased to announce The Wake, an exhibition of  photographs that displays visitors looking upon the rubble of the World Trade Center in the months following 9/11/01.

Photographer’s Statement:

On 9/11/01, I lived at 110 Greenwich Street in NY --- 2 blocks south of the Twin Towers.

I am not a photojournalist. But every photographer lives with a certain imperative I think. We understand that if you are wielding a camera, circumstances from time to time might call upon you to bear witness.  Things will happen in front of you that you MUST photograph. 

I did return to the area to see, to observe, to process.  Among the things that I found myself staring at over and over are the expressions that you see on the faces of the people in this series.  I'm sure my own face conveyed nothing different. The photographer inside my brain felt that there was something here that ought to be recorded.  These faces, these emotions, this procession of visitors, this wake ought to be recorded.  

My goal was to capture the expressions I was seeing with my naked eye. To take pictures of the visitors without them becoming aware that their picture is being taken so that I might record what showed on their faces as they looked upon the rubble of the Twin Towers.

I used the crowd as my camouflage. It was easier to hide myself and my camera in plain sight.

In 2011, I created an installation at Burning Man centered around this series.  A good number of people saw that installation.  Many people seemed moved by it.  That felt good.  At the end of the festival, as is often done with artwork at Burning Man, I put the prints in a box and left them at the temple to be consumed in the fire on the final night of the festival.

When I look at these images now, I am glad I took them.  I'm glad I yielded to that call inside my head.  I'm glad this record exists.