On the second anniversary of the September 11th tragedy, millions visited Meyerowitz's After September 11: Images from Ground Zero photo exhibit.

Marking the second anniversary of September 11, 2001, the After September 11: Images from Ground Zero website was flooded by millions of users viewing the noteworthy photography of CultureConnect Ambassador Joel Meyerowitz. Mr. Meyerowitz has brought this photographic memorial to the world in the last two years both as an exhibit on the Internet and in the Museum of the City of New York.

Within a few days of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the Museum of the City of New York engaged the noted photographer Joel Meyerowitz to create an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero and the immediate neighborhood. The 9/11 Photographic Archive will eventually number more than 5,000 images and will become part of the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York where it will be available for research, exhibition, and publication. Meyerowitz is working with a large format camera, which allows for the greatest detail and color reproduction. The Museum plans to mount an exhibition and publish an accompanying catalogue in 2004 as part of the opening of the new Museum of the City of New York at the Tweed Courthouse adjacent to New York City Hall, six blocks from the World Trade Center site.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State has asked the Museum of the City of New York and Joel Meyerowitz to create a special exhibition of images from the developing archive that would be sent to major world cities. The purpose of the exhibition is to visually relate the catastrophic destruction of the 9/11 attacks and the physical and human dimensions of the recovery effort. The aim is to provide overseas U.S. diplomatic missions with a dramatic exhibit that reminds foreign audiences of the extraordinary extent of the World Trade Center attacks, documents the recovery efforts and portrays the threat terrorism poses to any metropolitan area'a threat that must be combated at all costs.

The Museum and Mr. Meyerowitz have selected 28 images for the exhibition, which is entitled After September 11: Images from Ground Zero. The only photographer who has been granted unimpeded access to "ground zero" since September 13, 2001, Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and many other public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad. He takes a meditative stance toward the work and workers at "Ground Zero," systematically documenting the painful work of rescue, recovery, demolition and excavation. His color photos, presented in a 30 inch x 40 inch format, succinctly convey the magnitude of the destruction and loss and the heroic nature of the response. The exhibit serves as a stunning reminder to audiences of the true dimensions of the attack and the response.

Meyerowitz has published 11 books of color photographs as well as a book on the history of street photography. He is a Guggenheim fellow and a recipient of both the NEA and NEH awards. He recently completed his first film, POP, a feature-length documentary about a road trip with his father. An archive of works by Mr. Meyerowitz can be viewed at http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com