My sister worked about 4 blocks south of the WTC. On that day she was also at a meeting in upper Manhattan. Today she has cancer. It's a funny old world. I'm glad your cousins were out of harms way. Excellent image of the towers. You do beautiful work. I look forward to my visits to your gallery.

A SUPERB compo...very impressive. I'd never even heard of WTC till 9/11, so it's very interesting to see photos of that area from before. How fortunate for your cousins!

Piękne .... a zarazem bardzo smutne wspomnienia. Oddaję hołd Tym którzy tam zginęli. "Ludzie ludziom zgotowali taki los" Przesyłam pozdrowienia dla Ciebie.

interesting POV & composition

I lived in Brooklyn the day the Tower's fell. I had tickets to a Yankee game that night. When I walked out of my apartment, I smelt the smoke. Papers from the trader center would occasionally blow across the river to us. The week before, I'd been in the Trade Center, buying discount tickets to a Broadway musical. I don't know anyone in NYC who didn't know someone affected. My sister when to 3 memorial services during the aftermath. A friend of a friend, someone I had known from parties, died that day. One of my regular customers (I managed a computer store at the time), owned a jewelry store on the next block and was there that day. He told me what it was like being there. The photo is, as all your photos are, a great capture. But it's still hard for me to see the image, without remembering all that had happened that day and in the days that followed.

This is an exceptional photo, Mark. They were not easy to photograph in a manner that was interesting to view; apart from their scale there was nothing visually outstanding about them.  They suffered no competition along the NYC skyline and you have captured that without comparing them to a single other building. I'd photographed them many times, right from their birth.  I'd go downtown every few weeks and document their progress as they arose from that, now infamous, pit.  The last time I portrayed them was just after dawn during the first week of September, 2001.  Oddly, in retrospect, as soon as I saw the images they became my favorite portraits of the World Trade Center. I had a friend who worked for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower and had traveled out to New Jersey for his birthday party the night before.  None of us slept that night and as I had a full day ahead, I headed back into the city just after dawn.  My friend lived in Jersey City, just a block from the Hudson River.  When you stepped out of his lobby the first thing you saw were the towers .. that morning they were bathed in a surreal blend of gold and pink looking like a dream. I had my camera with me from the party and decided to walk down to the promenade and preserve the magic of the moment.  I am not about to confess some intuitive premonition or vivid insight for I felt nothing of the sort as I made about half a dozen images and then just enjoyed the view for about five minutes before heading to my car. Less than a week later I, as millions of others, sat mesmerized before the truly surreal as my head panned from the burning towers outside my window to a wider view of the same on my television screen. When confronted with the surreal the mind's native defense is a blanketing shock .. so it was for anyone in or near New York City that day.  I can't speak for the reaction of anyone at a greater distance. It was certainly an event we'd only expected from Hollywood and films such as Independence Day. My uncle was a Lieutenant in the NYC Fire Department for twenty years.  For a kid who grew up playing in and hanging around a fire house the guys who voluntarily braved every emergency in the city were our very real heroes.  Within the first hour after the towers fell reports started surfacing in the news that nearly 400 fire fighters were up in the towers when they collapsed.  My immediate reaction was "No! That's impossible. It couldn't be anywhere near that many!"  Denial & Shock .. there never is one without the other standing by. Even when the the horrifying figure of 343 was confirmed we still could or would not believe it.  Absence of seemingly appropriate emotion was a common phenomenon in NYC as the months passed.  The trauma of that September has expressed itself in uncountable, even unmeasurable, ways over the years.  It is tragedy that still unfolds. The following summer I was packing up some boxes when I came upon that series of photographs from the promenade; I had forgotten all about them.  At first I thought, "When were these taken?" and then in the next instant I remembered.  The towers were so beautiful that morning.  The more I looked at them and realized they were annihilated just a few days after I tried to discern some indication .. some omen-like shadow .. of what was about to happen.  There was nothing even remotely indicative of what was coming .. nor do I imagine would any such thing actually show up on film in the days or moments before any great disaster or tragedy.  I didn't see anything but a dream of the Twin Towers.  I didn't even notice I was crying until tears fell on the prints in my hands.  That's the moment when the damm began to break for me. Photography is a wondrous medium; I have been in love with it nearly all of my life.  Now that you've picked it up again .. don't ever put your camera down, Mark .. not for any reason.  You're damn good with a lens, Brother .. don't ever doubt it so much that you stop showing the rest of us the world as it appears to your eyes.  Your work matters and makes a difference. Terry

What a great photo. I can remember that day like it was yesterday. I also remember the day my friends and I went up to the top of them to the observation deck in 1997. Anyone who regularly visits my gallery knows that I love to photograph cityscapes. New York didn't disappoint! This is the way I like to remember them, or at least try to.

WOW - I never had the privilege to see the towers standing. My first visit to NYC was after the tragic happenings of 9/11. The image is amazing and like Terry said, you have captured them on their own, not competing with anything else. I believe that 9/11 is one event where everyone on the planet can tell you exactly where they were and what they were busy with when they heard the news. Something that I still find hard to comprehend even tho I stood at Ground Zero and saw the gaping hole myself. (before they started re-building)

wonderful picture! and tribute!!

Very beautiful capture, Mark!

Some things we will never forget. Aloha

I want to thank you too for the smiles you bring and the thoughts too taking life for granted can be a downfall for most just a quick hello or even a few words can make the difference sure can you bet thank you wonderful capture makes me look up warm hugs, Linda

outstanding story, beautiful image!!!! your relatives were really lucky!

this is something. I hear many stories and it was people of faith that say it was God who help them and protected them Like yout kin forks there. One was help down the steps out the building and when he turn to thank him he was gone as if in thin air. make you wonder about angels[i believe in them]

Really a dizzy view. Wonderful!

Spectacular shot. I'm so sorry about your Mom, and very happy for your cousins. It is really a shame the NY Port Authority has not rebuilt this site in all this time. They have managed to spend some 2 billion dollars doing nothing but move a little dirt around. They still haven't decided on the final designs of the buildings to replace these, despite the fact they held a contest with much fanfare. 9/11 has paralyzed our country. Whoops, I didn't realize how angry I am about that. Mark, it's always a joy to see what you have to show us, and I love to hear what descriptions, stories and jokes you provide along with your photos. Thanks to you.

Amazing perspective of the clouds scratches. The "9/11" is never forgotten!!

Wonderful photo and words. Isn't it so sad that about 9 years later no one has been tried for these monstrosities? And all the millions and billions spent on keeping these creatures alive could have been spent on American Citizens over this same time period? I can't imagine being someone who lost a loved one in this tragedy. Wherever these monsters are finally tried and however they are finally tried, it's a shame that American justice has not yet been administered. If I had lost a loved one on 911, I would be furious about the lack of such justice and the money wasted to keep these killers alive. I also think it's long past time that the arguing stop and something be rebuilt in this area. This is one thing all Americans should agree on.

Very nice photos I miss walking by them buildings

fantastic POV and shot !

TRex obviously had some very powerful feelings about 9/11. So did some of your other fans. And it's an amazing story about your family in that time, that they were spared (when so many weren't). And that's also sad and tragic about your mother. I'm sorry to read that, even 6 years later.

As for the shot, its imposing, with an amazing gray sky against which that purple really stands out. Purple seems to be a theme in these NY shots, and it works so well. I never cared for the towers as architecture, though I imagine they were imposing and sleek in person. But you got a strong angled shot of them; and that flat gray sky is perfect to set them off. A fine shot, and unintended memorial (ie, when you took the shots)...