For art inspired by 9/11 -- and for that matter, any "war" related art -- I struggle to define the audience. Who is the work for? The creator? The victims? Those left behind? I don't know. And perhaps more troubling on a personal level, I don't know where I fit into that scheme. 

During my junior year of college, I took an entire course on Photography and War. I wish that this book had existed then. We didn't debate in the class as much as we contemplated, sitting in an awkward and hallowed silence as we examined the histories of iconic war photography. Sometimes I wonder if we were too passive in that class, too keen to observe and less inclined to debate. I feel like your book would have changed that.

Perhaps what I find most compelling about the flip book is the size. It's so tiny, yet the story of the pages is of an entirely opposite proportion. It's like the book should just self-destruct from the tension between the physical size and the contents. I'd like to hold it in my palm and see how that feels.

9/11 was, in the scale of America's history, a huge event. Simply catastrophic. And while it lingers in recent memory for most Americans who were not directly affected, it does just that: linger. And your book forces the viewer to process the event much more directly, frame by frame. After all, on what occasion would most people have to contemplate these images? I don't know -- and quite frankly, until seeing your book, I'd never thought about that before.

How did discover this project?

Jessica Schwartz