Autumn in New York: The Presence of Absence

New Yorkers seem braced for conflict these days, even if they’re not quite ready for it. The martial mood is helped by the many steely-gray days of autumn. Rain, courtesy of an errant tropical storm, turned my recent trip to the city into a study in black-and-white, but with a heavy dose of red, white, and blue…

The American flag is still visible everywhere in Manhattan. It flies from the masts of the sailboats that have returned to the North Cove, near the restored Wintergarden and the memory of the Trade Center’s North Tower. It hangs from the center of Grand Central Terminal’s main room, where it turns the mind back to 1944, a perfect time–travel sensation. A battery of flags flap in the winds that come up in Rockefeller Center, the flagpoles in two long rows that embrace the skating rink below. The ice is being readied for Christmas even now.

New Yorkers talk of past or future conflict with characteristic directness. A woman working construction at the American Express Building was convinced that Al Qaeda would strike New York again. "…The bridges and the subways…that’s where they’re gonna do it next…", she said. The implications of that were understood between us, but not stated. Downtown stores are still hoping for the return of shoppers. A manager of Canal Jean, a large discount store on lower Broadway told me, "It’s been bad since September 11th. If we go to war with Iraq, who knows what’s gonna happen…".

I always carry my journal when I go home, and on this trip I also carried my camera- a 20-year-old Olympus. I packed four rolls of film, but I didn’t shoot the one roll of color I’d brought-Manhattan needs light to reveal her subtle colors, and the sun was busy elsewhere. The custom lab I use couldn’t meet my deadline (pass on the rush charges, thanks, I’m unemployed). So my ‘Manhattan suite’ of pictures will accompany next week’s piece on the Wintergarden, Grand Central, and the Trade Center. Each of them is a place of before-and-after, of history, change and, ultimately, renewal.