Nach der Ankündigng, zeigen wir Euch hier bei GoSee die Fotos der Ausstellung '20 Years After - an Alternate View'. Der Andrang bei der Ausstellung war unerwartet gross und der Fotograf war damit beschäftigt, die Geschichte dazu zu erzählen.
Der Beauty- & Modefotograf und Director TIM PETERSEN war damals in New Jersey und fotografierte mit seiner analogen Kamera zufällig die Ereignisse, die an jenem Tag die Welt veränderten. Der Schock saß so tief, dass er die Filme nie entwickelte – bis vor zwei Jahren.
Diese ausdrucksstarke Einzelausstellung des deutschen Fotografen und Wahl New Yorkers bietet 20 Jahre nach dem 11. September einen alternativen Blick auf die Ereignisse von 9/11. Die Ausstellung enthält eine Serie von Drucken, die chronologisch geordnet sind, sowie eine packende Videoinstallation. Tims Aufnahmen ermöglichen intime Einblicke aus einer bis dato nie gesehenen Perspektive.
“I woke up on September 11th to one of the most beautiful days you can imagine. Sunrise, clear blue sky, fresh and earthy smelling early autumn air and at 8 AM temperatures already in the mid-70s. I opened all the windows, made myself a coffee and switched on my turquoise colored, first generation iMac.
Howard Stern was on the radio, still broadcasting via regular airwaves. He was just telling the story of how he made out with Pamela Anderson but couldn’t close the deal when he said: “I don’t mean to interrupt the fun, but this is a breaking story, a serious news story, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.” That sounded surreal. Nobody knew what was going on, they suspected a small commuter plane had accidentally crashed into one of the towers. I turned my head to the window and indeed, there was a massive block of smoke coming out of the North Tower. It looked very dramatic and eerily beautiful, like a ginormous art installation that made the skyline look like a toy train steam engine, with puffy smoke billowing out of the chimney. But that chimney was the North Tower of the World Trade Center, in front of that crystal clear blue sky. Don’t get me wrong, there was no real sense of casualties, surely that plane must have bounced off that gigantic building, hopefully everybody was fine, and Howard Stern returned to the Pamela Anderson story.
… The light was as majestic as I have ever seen it. The sunset put a perfect golden reflection on the shimmery skyline, and all those little windows looked like golden nuggets. The sun didn’t seem to have noticed what happened that day. The Empire State Building stood in perfect light, and it was the tallest building in the skyline, like in the 60s. She almost looked gleeful like she wanted to say, “Look, I am still here!.” It was such a surreal toy landscape. The dark dust cloud put a picturesque contrast on the backdrop. It looked like a gigantic smoke machine had created an elaborate set for a Terminator movie. Except, by now, I knew that this dark cloud was full of burned human remains, yet my shot looked like a Tiffany’s ad from the 60s. I only took a few frames, almost threw up and never finished that roll.
Then I went straight to a local bar. It was packed – nobody wanted to stay home – at least not alone…
A few days later, I developed the film. The only reason I did is because on one of them was still a few frames of Emma’s first day of school, the roll I started shooting with, and I didn’t know which roll that was. By now, we knew about the full scope of 9/11. I had seen the photographs that were taken, in comparison, mine must be embarrassingly meaningless, and all I wanted to do is throw them away. I didn’t want to see them, I didn’t want anybody else to see them, and most importantly, I did not want to be reminded. I never looked at them and I never made a contact sheet so I had no idea what was on them…” Die ganze packende Story gibt es direkt bei Tim!
Tim Petersen is a New York-based photographer and director who specializes in fashion, celebrities and beauty. For almost 30 years, he has been consistently contributing to countless international publications and campaigns such as VOGUE, Vanity Fair, ELLE, and AMICA, just to name a few. Tim Petersen’s studio is located in the heart of the financial district in Manhattan. www.16beaverstudio.com
Wilhelm Hallen, Kopenhagener Str. 60-72, 13407 Berlin, Laufzeit: 5.-19. September 2021
