Mikey Flowers 9/11 Ashes to Ashes, Dust to DNA

More about the book

This book combines a first person account of the events of September 11 with a uniquely artistic view of the DNA recovery effort. Gripping texts and award winning photography combine to create a unique documentary of Mikey Flowers' experience. On the morning of September 11, 2001, a florist and volunteer Emergency Medical Technician named Mikey Flowers grabbed his digital camera and ran the few blocks from his store to the World Trade Center after the first plane hit the north tower. That day he helped people who escaped the towers, tended to the injured, and miraculously survived when the south tower collapsed. When he was able he took pictures of the stupefying chaotic scene. The images that Flowers took became the basis of a collaboration with the artist Kevin Clarke, whose studio was also near the WTC. Since 1988, Clarke has been making unique portraits combining photographic images and his subject's DNA sequences. For this collaboration, Clarke used Flowers' images of 9/11 and its aftermath for portraits of people who survived the attacks or who were involved in the rescue effort. The contents of this book are the subject of an exhibition tour which opened at the International Center of Photography in New York, June 28-September 1, 2002.