New York City's identity has shifted. With our symbolic skyline forever
altered, the urban landscape has changed--not only the 16-acre tract of
smoldering debris but the streets and buildings that remain intact. A city
whose color palette was primarily brick and asphalt now boasts bright red
and blue highlights. Any flat vertical surface suddenly has the potential
to become a spontaneous billboard. Digital displays are vehicles of grief
or hope. And pedestrians for years will tread over "WTC/RIP,"
emblazoned on every sidewalk corner in Lower Manhattan.
As a nod to the swiftness with which New York's graphic landscape changed
in the weeks following the tragedy, Metropolis documented these expressions
as quickly as we knew how--with a Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (featured in
our story on page 90 in the December 2001 issue). --Criswell Lappin
