From Across the River

What’s a photographer going to do but take pictures? Sandra Swieder (website) paid witness to the events of 9-11 with her camera from our eyewitness riverside view. The results are in a show, “From Across the River,” now open to public at Arthouse Productions (website), near the southeastern corner of Hamilton Square Park. The exhibit includes not just her pictures of that day and the days immediately following but memories of first responders and others, typed on small pieces paper hanging by the images on the wall. I preferred the black and white pictures over the color. B/W instantly grants an authoritative aesthetic; its very old fashioned-ness reinforces the amount of time that has passed since the incident. I was there (well here). I went to see the show on 9-11 10th anniversary weekend, a conflicted time for me. I can’t look this stuff objectively. The photographs are powerful, well done. Interpreting their art I cannot do, although they are well done. I think this exhibit might be better for those who weren’t there and benefit from the documentation; for me it just inspired memories, which can be a bittersweet experience. 9-11 is a well-documented event. But this exhibit does accomplish its own unique nuance. Jersey City (some pictures were taken from Hoboken) is home to some of 9-11’s closest witnesses, just a river away from ground zero. This exhibit not only records the 9-11 ordeal, but documents a specific view point of that ordeal.

The Jersey Side