I was a student in New York in 1999, I was very interested in the architecture and spaces of the city and took many photographs with a view to working on them in the future.
St. Paul's Chapel, -A sanctuary but not a shrine-an 18th-century church just yards away from where building 5 of the World Trade Center stood survived the World Trade Center tragedy and became a shrine of courage.
On 9/11, it was my second week of college classes close enough to audibly hear the towers fall. The sights and sounds I witnessed that day are expressed in my poem, Field Report.
The Liberty photo was taken on a stormy day just as the clouds broke. With the World Trade Center under construction and the skyline fading in the background, it made an interesting image.
Vara said-
“As an artist, it is invigorating to have been given such an eminent opportunity, bringing actual WTC steel together as visual metaphore of Unity”
“My art is like an organism…as you look closer you start seeing all the magical aspects of its composition, like veins and molecules, and as you step away you start seeing its form and meaning.” Olga Vargas
I developed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from the direct trauma exposure on Sept. 11 2001. I was recieving exposure therapy which helped me remember a lot that I forgot. I knew that I saw a lot but didn't realized how much I actually saw.