Artists Registry

AVENUE OF THE STRONGEST

Ongoing Exhibition
World Trade Center Baltimore
Lower Lobby
Phone: (410) 837-8439
Open to the Public Free of Charge
Open 7 Days/ 24 Hours
401 E Pratt St #2700
Baltimore, MD 21202

About the Photographer

Mark Roddenberry is a portrait photographer who was living in Lower Manhattan
during the 9/11 attacks. His studio was located eight blocks north of the World
Trade Center Complex. When the second tower collapsed, Mark was considered
to be the closest photographer that survived.

Mark shot several hundred images during and immediately after the attacks. His
images have been published in both FEMA's World Trade Center Building Per-
formance Study and NIST's (National Institute of Standards and Technologies)
Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7.

Artist Statement

“The camera was big, and the people were angry. Very angry. The rage was
clearly apparent, not only in their faces but in the way they walked. It was hard
to deal with at first, but I could tell they hated me, and I could understand why
because I hated myself for what I was doing. I told myself it was not me that was
upsetting them, but rather it was the camera. As I walked towards the chaos, in
my mind I knew that what I was doing was important.”

"At the time I was shooting with a long lens; shooting like this was the only way
to get a super wide shot. I would take the film back and then merge the images
and remove the lines. People would see the images before they were done,
and often they would suggest that I leave the lines in because they looked artistic.
That was ultimately how I chose to show the photographs."

-Mark Roddenberry