In his series of photographs “Stepping Through the Ashes” Eugene Richards has chronicled the immediate aftermath of 9/11 in dwntwn Manhattan. In the positive space of this picture he has captured a magnitude of “missing” flyers that went up in the following days. It is def. not an ad and I can imagine that this could have been used in “Newsweek” or some other magazine. Being from NY and having a vivid memory of 9/11 I know what this is an image of, but w out a caption or the context of 9/11 I dont think he was close enough to tell the whole story of this wall. In fact there is another shot of a close up one of the flyers in the series. Through the “hole” you are drawn to the scene and by looking closer your eye is forced to see the little black boxes which are pictures of the missing people. The police barricade acts like a line to bring you back to the center of the image when your eye wants to follow our instinct of reading from left to right. The soft focus ensures that the viewer doesnt focus on just one flyer but instead realizes there are many. There is a sense of “the lost” and “loss” in this picture and it is extremely somber as are the majority of the photographs in this set. Being black and white also adds to the somber tone (of the series), being devoid of “color”.
Good observations. I also like how everything surrounding the fliers esp the out of focus car is dark and the fliers themselves are white rectangles usually with another dark rectangle inside them, creating contrast and attracting out eye. the focus does this too of course.
I too was here to during 9/11 and I had largely forgotten about all the fliers that people put up searching for their missing loved ones. I saw one flier this September addressed “Dear Dad,” posted on the fence of St. Paul’s Chapel and it choked me up. it was a strong reminder that the loss people suffered that day continues.