Response through Art: Photography and Murals in Response to 9/11

After a tragedy, people often turn to different forms communication or expression to deal with the experience. Sometimes, the only form of communication that people interact with is the news. The get, what is believed to be, the facts on the situation from a person at the news desk. Others choose to deal with the story in a different way. By expressing himself or herself through word of mouth, music, paint or a camera, what they capture can often express much more than any news source or ad campaign that is set in place to cope with the aftermath. Expressions to 9/11 have been no different as they seek to highlight a myriad of feelings and reactions. Some have expressed a very patriotic view toward the United States, with art forms including images or descriptions of the Statue of Liberty and the American flag. Others may take a different side, suggesting that it is possible that the United States is not without fault and that the reaction to the attacks and those who share the same ethnicity as the attackers may be too harsh. The photograph Muslim woman with 9/11 mural by documentary photographer Jonathan Hyman seems to highlight the dueling reactions to September 11.

Muslim woman with 9/11 mural is a photograph that was taken in 2005 in Brooklyn, New York. The photographer is sponsored as Cultural Envoy by the American Embassy in Vienna, Austria and has exhibited his works in a variety of exhibitions surrounding September 11^th and people’s reactions to it. The main focus of this photo is the large mural painted onto the side of a building in a bleak, dreary part of Brooklyn. The mural is typical of many murals painted in New York City after 9/11, which often depict a patriotic fervor. The mural is an image of New York harbor with an orange sun setting behind the Statue of Liberty. But, what takes up the majority of the mural is the giant American flag and image of a bald eagle. The bright red, white and blue dominate the mural and call attention to the eagle’s yellow beak and sharp eye which suggests violence and puts the viewer at a lower level, causing the eagle to look down on everything and person in its path.

Hyman’s photograph captures a very interesting moment as a Muslim woman with a headscarf and covered body passing through the courtyard and right in front of the mural. This moment is so important because of the subject of the mural itself and the way in which the Muslim woman is positioned in relation to the eagle. The eagle’s eye seems to bare down on her, glaring at her with a ferocious stare. This image represents the feeling that many Muslim Americans may have about the way that they have been treated in the post-9/11 world. Because many people who practice Islam have been made to be targets of terrorist accusations and derogatory behavior, it is noteworthy that the eagle looks down on this woman, imposing the “us vs. them” binary. This is literally a “clash of civilizations”, as two groups who have found opposition with one another are depicted in one image. Author Edward Said would agree with this image is creating” an us vs. them” logic as the “morality” of the “patriotic mural” rains down on the Muslim woman as the target of marginalization.