9/11 NY in St.Petersburg

An exhibition of photos made by Joel Meyerovitz, the only photographer allowed to shoot the Sept.11 tragedy in New York, opened in Russia’s St.Petersburg on the day of the tragic anniversary. The exhibition was organized by the Culture Committee in the St.Petersburg municipal administration, the NY City Museum with the support of the US Department of State Education and Culture bureau and US Consulate General in St.Petersburg.

The exposition is called After 9/11: Photos From the Tragedy Epicenter, it is situated in  the Peter and Paul’s Fortress.
 
It was the initiative of the NY City Museum to allow Joel Meyerovitz to immortalize the 9/11 tragedy for the history.

The photographer started shooting on September 13, he took 5,000 shots within two months. Twenty-seven of them were picked out for the exhibition that is currently held in St.Petersburg. The exposition was demonstrated for the first time in London, then in Moscow this spring, the Afghani people could see the pictures in July.
 
Right after St.Petersburg, the exposition belonging to the NY City Museum will be taken on a tour about more than twenty countries of the world. A catalogue of the exposition is to be issued in 2004. When the world tour is over, the pictures will be included in the standing exposition of the NY City Museum in Twid Courthouse. The museum building is close to the NY City Hall, two blocks from the place where the World Trade Center stood. 

It seems that St.Petersburg was picked out for the exhibition on September 11 not accidentally. Americans have drawn kind of a parallel between the two hero cities, St.Petersburg and New York. The former stood up a 900-day blockade, and the latter’s heart was destroyed in a moment. The citizens of Leningrad (former name of St.Petersburg) couldn’t be crushed within almost three years. However, the American idea of security and control over the whole of the world has been destroyed by the two planes. The Russian city of Leningrad remained unchanged after  the blockade. On the contrary, the tragedy in New York made people think that the whole of the world has changed. 
 
Yelena Kiseleva
PRAVDA.Ru