On the Bookshelf: Aftermath

The only photographer to gain access to Ground Zero, Joel Meyerowitz spent nine months capturing the monumentality of the wreckage and the tireless efforts of the workers who reverently cleared the site. Hearing him speak at U.C. Berkeley this week added an additional, personal dimension to his richly detailed and dramatically lit photos, 400 of which were recently published in a book, Aftermath.

One image depicts a group of NYPD arson detectives who took Meyerowitz under their wing. All twelve members of the squad, he said, are now sick, just a few of the many victims of the toxic post-9/11 air.