The article “The Lower Manhattan revival, now featuring One World Trade Center” is quite an interesting read. The basic gist of the article talks about Lower Manhattan, before 9/11 and post 9/11 and how Manhattan is slowly getting back it’s vibrancy. So the focus of the images I am going to take should focus on the positives of Lower Manhattan, such ass people interacting with each other, everyday activities,  and even just the beauty of the city itself. I will try to avoid depressing type of images or images that could invoke depressing feelings.

• Summary: The article talks about the drastic change after 9/11 of the lower Manhattan. The narrative of the article tells us that a lot of business are coming back to Wall street and also the positive improvement of peoples lives thanks to the new construction of both the One World Trade center and the Oculus.

• Communication Problem: The images on this ad campaign should be positive and uplifting, nothing nostalgic or sad. The aim is to demonstrate the ability to create lively environment in the lower Manhattan.

• Image Ideas:  Photos of the new buildings, photos of the people around the busy streets of the lower Manhattan, Photos of  kids which represent the youth coming to the neighborhood

After the Twin Towers fell, our world was torn apart but our country was brought together in a very different, strong and beautiful way. This article describes the look and feel about One World Trade Center, as well as what’s being built in the neighborhood of “the tallest building and most expensive building in the Western Hemisphere.” Jonathan O’Connell describes how they made the building safer by building a stronger foundation and reenforced building structure. He also explains how it’s going to be used and what the neighborhood should be expected to encompass. With apartments in and around the building, restaurants and stores by famous people, and a memorial museum, it’s expected to have a welcoming and lively feel. The images that should accompany the article should show how the area has come alive. It should have One Trade Center Rising from the ground up to show how our city stands tall. Or maybe it can have people coming together in love and remembrance.

Results:

Summary: This article focuses on the rebirth of New York City’s fallen gem, the World Trade Center. Before the 9/11 attacks, the World Trade Center not only served as New York’s pride and joy, but they represented the pinnacle of a successful business expanse. Nicknamed “the center of the universe”, the World Trade Center and the neighborhood around it was glowing with new opportunity and hope. Nevertheless, the article goes on to discuss the financial and economic growth that gradually emerged after the attacks. The most interesting quote I read from this article was from the father of a fallen firefighter, Lee Ielpi, who stated,” Not rebuilding something big would in some way show these terrorists that they had succeeded in some way.”

Communication Problem: We need to communicate that Manhattan has developed much more than where it was just a short 15 years ago. As a matter of fact, the article shows that the number of people living in Lower Manhattan has tripled.

Image Ideas: An active metropolis. Feet quickly walking along the sidewalks in abundance. A sunset representing that there will always be beauty despite the tragedy of past events.

Results: I’m extremely pleased with my results. The weather was ideal for taking photos outside and I tried by best to take full advantage of it. My objective was to show the residential side of Lower Manhattan, since the article stressed the resident population increase since 2001. I took many photos of people doing things that you wouldn’t expect in Lower Manhattan. I saw people reading books, walking their chickens (yes, I saw that), and buying from street vendors.

But when I saw an ice cream truck, I knew it had great potential to accompany the article “The Lower Manhattan Revival”. I stayed in front the ice cream truck for at least 15 minutes waiting for the perfect moment. For the second image, I used a photo of two gentlemen playing chess. After most of the class went back to City Tech, I pointed my camera at John, one of the chess players. He turned to his opponent and joked,” If I had a dollar for every time someone took a photo of me I’d be rich.” After he finished his match, I went up to him and asked to play against him with a dollar in my hand. I ended up playing chess with John for at least an hour.

Summary: The article speaks of how the lower district of Manhattan has recovered in various ways in the years after the September 11th attacks, such as neighborhoods in the area becoming wealthy destinations for businesses, while also tackling the issue of how the site was repurposed by the officials who owned the land; and how they negotiated with the estates of the victims to make sure the memory and respect was preserved.

Communication Problem:

The Manhattan of today is far different than the Manhattan of fifteen years ago. How does one reconcile the destruction of 9/11 with the reconstruction effort, and how does one show how business has returned to the area without forgetting the tragedy that came before.

Image Ideas: There will definitely be a visit to the 9/11 memorial site. Other historical sites nearby, as they are today, are also compelling possibilities.

Results: While the ideal of reconciling the past and present was applicable to the project, it was not so overt as to include the harshness of the attacks that brought down the Twin Towers. There was an emphasis on showing how lower Manhattan has changed utterly to being a place of living in the wake of disasters, of families going about their days and people going about the city with their pets.