Customer Reviews

Twin Towers Remembered

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4 star:		(2)
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I flipped through the Magnum Photographers book on the WTC attack, and while the images are undeniably gripping, they also border on the macabre and exploitative (a bit like rubbernecking at a car crash scene). This modest little volume, on the other hand, really shows these buildings as they lived, not as they died: many of the views are from a distance,and remind me how they dominated the skyline. This is how most New Yorkers experienced these buildings---going to the top was usually only for special occasions like a field trip with kids or dinner with out-of-town visitors. Most telling here are the "before and after" shots, where the author shows the same view pre- and post- September 11th. Unlike the other morbid book(s) out there, this one has only one (distant) view of the Towers on fire; the rest of the images are of the daily life of the buildings, long may their memory live. Poignant and powerful, bravo!

Many of the photo remembrances that have come out in the wake of the WTC's destruction have centered on fairly recent images. Vergara's book is one of the few to show the building from its construction to its demise. Having grown up across the Hudson in Jersey City, I was particularly moved by the wealth of photos from the west side of the river. I remember seeing the buildings go up and marking their progress by how high the yellow tarp around each tower was. A beautiful book.

Very oddly sized, this pocket sized tribute is almost in stark contrast to the grandness and stature of the actual Towers which they are commemorating. Photos are moving and information is interesting as we see stages of the development of the World Trade Center in the early seventies. The photographer was at the same spots then as he was after the attacks so we can see the terrible void in the New York City skyline where these magnificent structures stood. If you want to see full sized photos, however, this is NOT the book for you. It measures around the size of a 4x6 postcard.

I ordered this book for my 6 1/2 year old son who is facinated with the Towers. Nice pictures of the WTC from its early days and building, and tastefully done pictures of its sad destruction. The pictures are taken from all over the New York Metropolitan area emphasizing their past domination of New York's signature sky line. Very little prose other than picture identification, and my son can spend hours pouring over the pictures. I would have appreciated a few more close up shots and interior picture and views, but all in all, a nicely done memoir.

I looked at this book at a base exchange in Hampton, Va, and it gave the viewer a different look at the trade center, and like the other reviewers have said, it's not rubbernecking.

I'm a bit puzzled by the size though...why is it so tiny?

I happened to glance at this book at my local bookstore. It just so happens I was there around the 9 month anaversary of the attacks. I looked at the pictures and they brought the towers to life as if I had been in New York which I have never had been before. The most striking thing to view was the pictures side by side of a place where the towers were visible next to that same place after the attacks. The void echoes the void still felt in my heart where the towers and the 2000 people once were. This book and the memories and feelings it evokes serve as a fitting memorial to the victims and the buildings destroyed in the attacks.