Photo-J News

Library Of Congress Buys 9/11 Images

The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has bought more than 100 photographs from Bolivar Arellano's gallery in New York City.

The exhibition on September 11 images originally featured work by 11 newspaper photographers from the New York area when it opened in November last year. The contributors were the New York Post's Bolivar Arellano, Juan Gonzalez, Mary Altaffer, Tamara Beckwith, G.N. Miller and Steven Hirsch; Todd Maisel, Susan Watts and Michael Schwartz from the Daily News; Robert Mecea from Newsday; and Jose Rivera from El Diario. In the next few months, seven more have joined: Jim Alcorn, Tony Fiorannelli, Brigitte Stelzer, Robert Miller and Don Halasy from the Post, William Lopez from The New York Times, and Willie Cirone, a firefighter and photographer for the First Responder newspaper. The images run from the moving to the gory: from firefighters who died that day to jumpers and even body parts.

The Library of Congress will place the prints in its archives and give $12,000 to charities such as the Emergency Medical Service Command Memorial Foundation, the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children's Benefit Fund and the Father Mychal Judge Fund. In a letter to Arellano, Carol Johnson, the curator of photography at the Library of Congress, said that the exhibition was "outstanding, if not the best in the city."

Proceeds from the sale of photographs at this exhibition has raised more than $27,000 so far, says Arellano. Continued publicity and public interest has spurred him to extend the exhibition, yet again, till September 11 this year. The gallery on 420 East 9th Street in New York is open Tuesday to Friday from 2 to 9 p.m., Satuday and Sunday from 12 to 9 p.m. Call (212) 420-1263 for more information.