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Yesterday I published a memorial archive of 1,800 photographs of NYC since 9/11: 25years.org

I posted some of these photos in 2001, shrunk down for low-res screens and dial-up modems. A quarter century later, they can now appear at full size. Over 1,000 of them have never been shown before.

I visited the same locations again and again to take before/after/now comparisons: memorials aging and disappearing, trees growing and dying, street art painted over and emerging again. Sometimes I remembered exactly where I stood in 2001, sometimes I had to check reference photos.

In late July I started sifting through the more than 100,000 snapshots I’ve taken since 2001. More than 30,000 of them were related to 9/11 or to the changes it brought to NYC. I edited those down to 3,300 photos, then cut again to 1,800.

The photo archive is split into nine sections: the day itself, cleanup, rebuilding, commerce, patriotism, elections, protests, security and remembrance.

I’ve never discussed my leukemia (CML) diagnosis before, which happened nine years after 9/11. Was it related to the acrid air and persistent dust that filled my apartment on Canal Street? Or just a genetic accident as I aged 25 years? There’s no way to know.