Margaret Morton (New York, NY)

Missing Posters (St. Vincent's Hospital)

Digital print from composite of 20 negatives
8 ½ x 93 5/16 inches
Photographed October 2001, Printed 2002
Courtesy the artist

Missing Posters, by tens of thousands, completely transformed the streetscape of Lower Manhattan after September 11. Photographs-the most immediate form of communication available to those in search of lost loved ones-were culled from family albums, combined with desperate pleas for help and physical descriptions, assembled into posters, and mass-reduced by local copy shops.

Weeks passed. Rain, wind, and the sanitation department swept posters from phone booths, street lamps, and corner mailboxes. Hope for survivors faded. The posters took on new meaning, preserved as memorials, labeled "wall of the missing" or "wall of grief," embellished with flags and flowers. The enormity of the loss of life stared back at passersbys and gave face to the constantly changing statistics.