Stepping Through the Ashes
Various Artists
Aperture
English
Co-edited by Eugene Richards and Janine Altongy
Hardcover
192 pages
228 x 305 mm
2005
ISBN 1931788014
Many photographers have recorded the devastation of 9/11, but Eugene Richards, as always, transcends description to offer instead a way to reconsider, and thus begin to come to terms with this tragedy. He says, “The World Trade Center has been largely dealt with as a crime scene, as a horror, or as the tourist attraction it is fast becoming. What I see when I stare downtown is an ever evolving repository for the missing, a focal point for grieving, for remembering, for reflection, for self examination.”
This book then is about New York and America during a period of sudden and massive historical, economic, and psychological change. It’s about how we feel about September 11th, how we feel about our country today, how we feel about those lost in the disaster. It’s also about how we feel about violence against innocents, non-combatants in a war. You view the ruins, you think about the Warsaw ghetto, Sarajevo, the London Blitz, the fire bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima. You think about the loss of beauty that comes with such violence, the sudden loss of family relationships, intelligence, promise.
(source: https://eugenerichards.com/store/stepping-through-the-ashes)
About the Artist
Eugene Richards, photographer, writer, and filmmaker, was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1944. After graduating from Northeastern University with a degree in English, he studied photography with Minor White. In 1968, he joined VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America, a government program established as an arm of the so-called” War on Poverty.” Following a year and a half in eastern Arkansas, Richards helped found a social service organization and a community newspaper, Many Voices, which reported on black political action as well as the Ku Klux Klan. Photographs he made during these four years were published in his first monograph, Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta.
https://eugenerichards.com/
(source: https://eugenerichards.com/about)
Janine Altongy was born in Jersey City. New Jersey. A certificated social worker, a writer, video editor, and documentary film producer.
Artist’s Facebook
(source is from the book)
About the Publisher
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From our base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through our acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs,” Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society.
https://aperture.org/
(source: https://aperture.org/about)
