Disappeared Vistas
World Trade Center
Compiled by Anthony L. Fedele with photographs by Robert B. Sleeper
The Annapolis Publishing Company
32 pp, $19.50
Construction workers, high in the girders or swinging in a gondola, see the
world from unique perspectives. Retired construction worker Robert B. Sleeper
took full advantage of that during his 40 years as a member of the International
Union of Operating Engineers plying his amateur photography around New York
City.
Sleeper’s amateur picture taking included the New York skyline and now disappeared World Trade Center. Since the tragic terrorist attack of 9/11 those pictures have taken on an importance to our memories that was unimaginable when they were shot.
The photos gathered for this book by Anthony L. Fedele, himself a retired 42-year member of UAW Local 171 and a Region 8 international representative, are incomparable. They capture the WTC at dawn, in the fullness of daylight and a as glowing gridwork of lights in the darkness. Fedele places short quotations from politicians that speak to the American spirit between some of the photos.
And a poem by Melinda Sue Pacho follows a few shots of the burning towers and the rescue effort. The final verse reads:
When you awaken I’m morning’s hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush,
Of quiet birds in circle flight
I am soft stars that shine at night,
Don’t stand beside my grave and cry,
I am not there. I did not die.
The photos of “World Trade Center” are grand in scale and importance. And these vistas will certainly never be seen or photographed again.
“World Trade Center” is available directly from The Annapolis Publishing Company, 132 West Street, Annapolis, MD 21401, by calling 800-536-1414, or online at www.annapolisbooks.com. The book costs $19.50.
