From September 11 to October 25, the Sofia City Art Gallery is playing host to a documentary exhibition “After September 11: Images from Ground Zero” by Joel Meyerowitz, the only photographer to have been given access to Ground Zero at the World Trade Centre in New York.

Fenced off and classified as a crime scene, the area was closed to all photographers. What happened at Ground Zero in the months after 9/11 remained a closely guarded secret, yet one photographer documented everything. Meyerowitz became the sole photographer to have continued access to the site and describe its transformation over the next nine months from a place of total devastation to cleared bedrock. The photographer captured the tireless efforts of the multitude of police officers, firemen, construction workers, engineers and volunteers who participated in the clean-up process.

The photographs presented in Sofia are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Joel Meyerowitz was born in 1938 and is considered to be one of the most influential street photographers, founder of the New colour photography movement. He has published more than 30 books, and taken part in 350 solo and group exhibitions around the world.

Compiled by Yoan Kolev