Kodak Moments, Flashbulb Memories: Reflections on 9/11

The catastrophe of 9/11 transformed life in New York City. Grassroots responses were spontaneous, improvised, and ubiquitous. Every surface was blanketed with candles, flowers, flags, and missing persons' posters that became the focal point of shrines memorializing the missing and presumed deceased. The catastrophe produced a series of equivocal situations: Kodak moment or surrogate body? Crime scene or tourist attraction? Missing person notice or obituary? Cheap souvenir or involuntary memento? Voyeurism or mourning? Above all, the question of documentation: When, where, and how should documentation of memorials be exhibited?