Monroe Gallery of Photography specializes in 20th- and 21st-century photojournalism and humanist imagery—images that are embedded in our collective consciousness and which form a shared visual heritage for human society. They set social and political changes in motion, transforming the way we live and think—in a shared medium that is a singular intersectionality of art and journalism.
— Sidney and Michelle Monroe
Monroe Gallery of Photography announces a special Pop Up exhibition of photographs commemorating the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center that became known as 9/11. The Pop Up is at Monroe Gallery, 112 Don Gaspar Avenue September 9-13, 2026.
Every year since 2001 solemn ceremonies are held to remember the many that lost their lives, the families whose lives were changed forever, and the selfless first responders who performed heroically on that day, and for days after, in the search for survivors.
The twin towers design process started in 1965 and construction began in 1972. The twin towers were the tallest buildings in the world for a very short time. Photographs in the exhibit document the construction of the World Trade Center, its prominence in the skyline of Manhattan, and the devastation of September 11, 2001
Sidney and Michelle Monroe relocated their family and Gallery from New York City to Santa Fe shortly after 9/11. This exhibit is a remembrance of the World Trade Center, fellow New Yorkers, and the countless lives affected on that day.
September 6–11, 2026 Live Worldwide via Zoom • 7:00 p.m. EST
Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, PROJECTIONS brings together 35+ photographers, editors, and visual journalists whose images documented the attacks and shaped how the world understood them.
Across six nights, photographers who covered the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Shanksville, and the White House will share firsthand accounts of that extraordinary day and its aftermath.
Now the witnesses return to tell the stories behind the images that became history.
Among the confirmed presenters:
• Joel Meyerowitz • Peter Turnley • David Hume Kennerly • Steve McCurry • David Friend • MaryAnne Golon • Ruth Fremson • Jennifer S. Altman • Thomas Dallal • David Handschuh • Jim Lowney • Ron Haviv • Mark Edward Harris • Stan Honda • Mario Tama • Jose Jimenez-Tirado • Pete Souza • Rabbi Irwin Kula • Jeff Swensen • Robert Clark • Matthew McDermott • Gary Suson • Todd Maisel • Gulnara Samoilva • Lori Grinker • Thomas Franklin • Jason Florio • Lyle Owerko • Eric Draper • Spencer Platt • Shannon Stapleton • Phil Penman • Lauren Walsh • Susan Watts • Todd Maisel
The programs will be recorded and permanently archived by PROJECTIONS as an educational resource for future generations.
Iconic symbols of the New York skyline, the World Trade Center gleamed like golden towers in the sunset, then smoked and fell with the devastation of 9/11.
Such was the cycle of life for what had been once the tallest buildings in the world.
“Greek Orthodox Church and Towers,” by Eric O’Connell, September 11, 2001
Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography is commemorating the 20th anniversary of that fateful day with “9/11 In Remembrance,” an exhibit of more than 20 images. The photographs document the design and building of the World Trade Center, its reign over the city skyline and its fall on that crisp September day.
World War II and lifestyle photographer Tony Vaccaro captured the towers during a 1979 sunset, as well as their architect, Minoru Yamasaki, in 1969.
Yamasaki’s preference for “aesthetic thinness” surfaced in the narrow spacing of the buildings’ windows and the vertical patterning created by aluminum alloy sheathing. When construction ended in 1976, it garnered scant praise, but the skyscrapers became symbolic of the Manhattan skyline.
When terrorists struck 25 years later, freelance photographer Eric O’Connell had just moved to New York from San Francisco. He saw the burning towers, heard a rumble and grabbed his cameras and ran toward the flames. He got to the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church as everything exploded around him. When the pounding stopped, he didn’t know if he was dead or alive.
O’Connell’s print shows both the towers and the church being swallowed by smoke and flames.
“He heard people yelling, ‘It’s coming down!’ and he dove into a lobby,” gallery co-owner Michelle Monroe said. “He couldn’t tell what was inside and what was outside. It looks like a horror movie.”
O’Connell also captured the chaos and confusion of people engulfed in ash and dust in “The group in dust, West Street, September 11, 2001.”
“The group in dust, Wall Street,” by Eric O’Connell, September 11.
“Firemen on the scene of the terrorist attack on World Trade Center,” by Shepard Sherbell, September 11, 2001.
Shepard Sherbell photographed a horrified trio of firemen watching the collapse.
“There were 8 million faces that looked like that for weeks afterward,” Sidney said.
Twin Towers in sunset, New York,” by Tony Vaccaro, 1979.
“They shut down all the traffic in Manhattan,” Michelle Monroe added. “They designated streets as one-way for emergency responders. New Yorkers would line the streets as the shifts changed.”
The crowd applauded, waved signs of support and gave out water bottles and flowers, echoing the pandemic’s spontaneous salutes to first responders. Black bunting draped every firehouse, honoring the firefighters who died.
“Every firehouse was a shrine,” Sidney Monroe said.
New Mexico’s Eric Draper photographed President George W. Bush on the phone in a Florida classroom when he learned of the attack. Draper was the president’s personal photographer.
As Deputy Assistant Dan Bartlett points to news footage of the World Trade Center, President George W. Bush gathers information about the attack Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, from a classroom at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla. Eric Draper (Courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography)
“He was reading books to a kindergarten class,” Sidney Monroe said. “They set up an office in one of the school rooms, then they whisked him out on Air Force One and flew around until they figured out what was going on.”
In their own words
As former New Yorkers, 20 years later Sidney and Michelle Monroe still struggle with the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
Their gallery stood nine blocks north of what became Ground Zero. The National Guard cut off the neighborhood, closing their business. Their daughter was 9 years old.
“Our daughter was in school,” Sidney Monroe said. “They had a recess period before the school started. They saw the plane flying over their playground.”
The school staff rushed the children into some old fallout shelters. Afterward, Japanese school children sent them 1,000 teddy bears.
“Our daughter will never, never be the same,” Michelle Monroe said.
The fires were still burning when the gallery reopened.
“You’d look out the window and there would be ash falling,” Sidney Monroe said. “It was surreal.”
The couple decided to move to Santa Fe because of its status as either the second or third most active art market in the country, depending on the source.
“It’s a dreadful, dreadful anniversary, but there were so many people who ran into the mouth of hell,” Michelle Monroe said. “We don’t do anything that day. We just say, ‘Let’s get it over with.’ I don’t think anyone stopped crying for a couple of weeks.”
“Minoru Yamasaki, World Trade Center Architect,” by Tony Vaccaro, 1969
If you go
WHAT: “9/11 In Remembrance”
WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe
Photographer Eric O'Connell discusses his 9/11 photograph of the Greek Orthodox Church near the World Trade Center and its relationship to Tony Vaccaro's photograph of the World Trade Towers in Sunset, 1979
