I remember the day ten years ago very well. As every morning at that time, we were riding our bike to work. In Maryland, September 11 2001 started as a beautiful, sunny, early fall day. The air was fresh and the sky was bright blue and cloudless. A few leaves timidly started to change their color. A deceiving tranquility and peacefulness as we should soon find out. Only a few hours later, the sleek towers of the World Trade Center in New York, that just rose up to a height of 417 and 415 meters, tore a glaring hole into lower Manhattan and into many people's lives.
The north tower of the World Trade Center was finished in 1972 and became the world's tallest building, towering 417 meters over Manhattan (until Chicago's Sears Tower overcame the two Twin Towers in May 1973). The World Trade Center was the workplace for as much as 50'000 people and each day 200'000 visitors were attracted to the twin towers. Over the years, the correspondent of a third of the world population may therefore have passed through the World Trade Center as a visitors. The World Trade Center skyscrapers certainly left an awe-inspiring impression and good memories in the lives of many of these visitors.
Through the dreadful events of 10 years ago, the good memories of the World Trade Center became tainted and connected to an act of incomprehensible violence and destructive power that is considered by many as a decisive turning point in most recent history that still affects us today. Having visited New York and the World Trade Center shortly before its destruction and having lived just outside of Washington made me experience the shock and aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon very close. Whenever I think of that day, the images of that beautiful morning directly relay to the horrific news that followed and mix with sympathy and empathy for the people that mourn and suffer even to that day. It has created a special bond and connection that is difficult to explain. At least to me, the World Trade Center has become a symbol for the positive and the negative, which is why I had the idea to combine a positive and a negative of the World Trade Center in one composite, diptyque image.