Photo credit: © Jonathan Hyman
Accession Number: C.2012.115.2.1
Dimensions: Unavailable
Source: Jonathan C. Hyman
Credit Line: Museum Purchase. Photograph by Jonathan C. Hyman.
Double Tribute with Children
Description
Digital photograph titled Double Tribute with Children, Washington Heights, New York City, 2004 by Jonathan C. Hyman. The photograph depicts a mural created by Jose Moronta on an exterior wall of the I.S. 143 Eleanor Roosevelt School near the Washington Bridge in Manhattan. The mural depicts the city skyline with the Twin Towers and a large heart colored like an American flag. A tag near the bottom reads "The I.S. 143 Family." Above the mural reads "In Remembrance of 911. And Flight AA 587." In the photograph, children are captured running past the mural.
Digital photograph titled Double Tribute with Children, Washington Heights, New York City, 2004 by Jonathan C. Hyman. The photograph depicts a mural created by Jose Moronta on an exterior wall of the I.S. 143 Eleanor Roosevelt School near the Washington Bridge in Manhattan. The mural depicts the city skyline with the Twin Towers and a large heart colored like an American flag. A tag near the bottom reads "The I.S. 143 Family." Above the mural reads "In Remembrance of 911. And Flight AA 587." In the photograph, children are captured running past the mural.
Historical Notes
The mural featured in Hyman’s photograph commemorates the second airliner tragedy that befell New York in fall 2001. On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587—traveling from JFK International Airport to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic— crashed into the neighborhood of Belle Harbor in Queens, New York, shortly after takeoff. The crash was caused by pilot error and an aircraft design flaw. All 260 people aboard the plane—251 passengers and 9 crew members—were killed, as well as five people on the ground.
The mural deepens a connection between these two disasters that shook both local and international Hispanic communities. Numerous victims were from heavily Dominican neighborhoods like Washington Heights, and 68 were Dominican nationals. For Dominican Americans living in New York City, the proximity of Flight 587’s crash to the 9/11 attacks two months earlier only deepened their collective sorrow. Friends and family of Flight 587 victims were doubly impacted by the two disasters, and many felt the incident was overshadowed in the media due to the scale of 9/11. Today, there exists a permanent memorial in Belle Harbor, Queens, designed by the Dominican artist Freddy Rodriguez, where mourners hold annual ceremonies and place flowers next to the engraved names of the 265 people killed.
The mural featured in Hyman’s photograph commemorates the second airliner tragedy that befell New York in fall 2001. On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587—traveling from JFK International Airport to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic— crashed into the neighborhood of Belle Harbor in Queens, New York, shortly after takeoff. The crash was caused by pilot error and an aircraft design flaw. All 260 people aboard the plane—251 passengers and 9 crew members—were killed, as well as five people on the ground.
The mural deepens a connection between these two disasters that shook both local and international Hispanic communities. Numerous victims were from heavily Dominican neighborhoods like Washington Heights, and 68 were Dominican nationals. For Dominican Americans living in New York City, the proximity of Flight 587’s crash to the 9/11 attacks two months earlier only deepened their collective sorrow. Friends and family of Flight 587 victims were doubly impacted by the two disasters, and many felt the incident was overshadowed in the media due to the scale of 9/11. Today, there exists a permanent memorial in Belle Harbor, Queens, designed by the Dominican artist Freddy Rodriguez, where mourners hold annual ceremonies and place flowers next to the engraved names of the 265 people killed.
Curator's Comment
On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Jonathan C. Hyman, an artist and photographer based in upstate New York, embarked on a journey to document responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks appearing in the landscape around him.
For the next five years, armed almost daily with his camera, ladder, and car, Hyman captured evidence of the grassroots expressions of everyday citizens spurred by this national catastrophe. His investigations took him from Maine to Florida and west to Illinois, though the majority of photographs were taken closer to New York City. The result is an expansive archive of more than 20,000 film and digital images. Hyman encountered improvised tributes and memorials on public and private property, in urban and rural areas, and on all manner of surfaces from building walls, handball courts, and vehicles to tree trunks, construction fencing, and human skin. He continued for years to document these unofficial memorials, many of which remained long after the emergence of more formal tributes.
HIDE
On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Jonathan C. Hyman, an artist and photographer based in upstate New York, embarked on a journey to document responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks appearing in the landscape around him.
For the next five years, armed almost daily with his camera, ladder, and car, Hyman captured evidence of the grassroots expressions of everyday citizens spurred by this national catastrophe. His investigations took him from Maine to Florida and west to Illinois, though the majority of photographs were taken closer to New York City. The result is an expansive archive of more than 20,000 film and digital images. Hyman encountered improvised tributes and memorials on public and private property, in urban and rural areas, and on all manner of surfaces from building walls, handball courts, and vehicles to tree trunks, construction fencing, and human skin. He continued for years to document these unofficial memorials, many of which remained long after the emergence of more formal tributes.
HIDE
