Featured Article

PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES OUR
'HEART' AT THE TOWER OF LIGHTS
By Sara Pentz

Noted Southern California Photographer Cliff Wassmann's stunning photograph of the Tower of Lights taken on the last day they lit up the sky, has been chosen for a dramatic "Remembrance" poster honoring the one year anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

It was a chance encounter by a printing company (PSG Printing Services of Greensboro, North Carolina) executive that made the poster possible - an East Coast meets West Coast encounter made possible by the Internet.

After searching the Web for the 'perfect' photograph to illustrate the commemorative poster, PSG's marketing director Teresa Yeager discovered Wassmann's photo at his Web site, www.artseek.com/wfa. Yeager immediately knew the picture illuminated just the right spirit and emotion her company, and other cooperating printing companies, were searching for to grace the historic poster. Wassmann, a native of Hackensack, NJ, gladly scanned and graciously donated his photo to the commercial printer on the other side of the country.

A collection of printing companies led by PSG, Printing Services of Greensboro, North Carolina, is now offering the poster free to the public, and Wassmann has graciously donated his photograph.

If a photographer ever put his heart into a work, this photograph reveals the emotional passion experienced as he waited through the dark of night to capture this charismatic last photograph of the tribute lights. Shot in an early morning mists, the Tower of Lights reached toward the sky and somehow magically carved a heart-like figure against the clouds overhead.

When Wassmann traveled back to New York in April to photograph the twin beams of light that had been illuminated for the six month anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he wasn't expecting to create an image that was any different than those done by thousands of other photographers who sought to preserve the event. But on the final night the lights were illuminated - and the only night they stayed lit all night - a light rain began falling and by 1:00 a.m. beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, Wassmann found himself alone waiting for the right moment to click his shutter. The clouds and rain helped form the stunning image, with the faint shape of a heart at the apex as the lights gently caressed the clouds. "When I saw the image," says Wassmann, "I found it deeply poignant. It became a doubly symbolic final tribute, allowing our hearts to reach out and communicate love to all those who suffered in this tragic 9/11 event."

"The lights made a powerful statement on several levels," adds Wassmann. "During wartime cities were told to turn down the lights and what does New York do? It sets up the brightest lights in the country, a beacon that could be seen from 20 miles away! It was, at once, a defiant gesture and spiritual recognition of the lives lost. I believe it was the most important piece of public art ever installed."

What sets Wassmann's photography apart, in general, are the spectacular locations as well as his keen eye for using composition and color to lure the viewer into the scene. Years of studying painting at the nation's oldest art school, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, have given him a different perspective on the photographic process. He is known for the stunning clarity of his scenes of vast Southwest expanses and rich landscape imagery. Rocky beaches, soaring sandstone cliffs. It is these dramatic vistas that have become his trademark.

For the past 10 years Wassmann has been traveling to the places that linger in our imagination, Easter Island, Chechen Itza, Chaco Canyon, the lost civilizations and sacred sites that pull us in for reasons we can't explain. "Perhaps it's an ancient memory trying to awaken. It's not hard to imagine our civilization collapsing the way so many others have in the past. When I wander alone though some of these ancient ruins I can feel the ghosts of those that came before," he philosophizes.

Wassmann's limited edition supergloss prints can be found in collections around the world. These coveted photographs include the exotic terrain of Easter Island, the Seychelles, Christmas Island, Antarctica, Chechen Itza, the Ancient Americans, Hidden Canyons, Stonehenge, and other mysterious places.

Wassmann's images of Easter Island and Antarctica, places where most won't go to the trouble to take the bulky view camera, are astonishing in the depth of color and detail. There are moments so fleeting, however, when there isn't time to set up the 4X5 camera. In these cases Wassmann relies on the Canon A2 35mm camera. This camera has been the portal for some of his most famous images such as surfing dolphins, rainbows and spectacular lightning strikes over the Pacific Ocean.

When Wassmann created www.mysteriousplaces.com he never envisioned that it would attract such a wide and diverse audience. Since its inception the Web site, featuring sacred sites and ancient civilizations from Easter Island to Chechen Itza, has elicited bravos from such self-described enthusiasts as a 12 year old from Wisconsin and a prominent UCLA archeologist.

Messages come from around the world, thanks to the Internet. Owners of a software development company in Ottawa, who chose an Easter Island statue as their logo, purchased Wassmann's photos. Others who have marveled at his artistry include the Discovery Channel Canada, a French software company, the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, Earth Magazine, the Travel Channel, and Microsoft, which used the Web site to illustrate a book on Internet Explorer 3.0. Wassmann has received reams of email messages calling his site 'the coolest.' Teachers across the United States use www.mysteriousplaces.com to teach about these exotic locales. "They put my site up on the monitor in the classroom and go through it page by page as part of their lesson plan," he adds.

Photographer Wassmann captures light, color and images on film favoring us with the majesty of his creativity. Pictures are memory records. "Rembrance," the poster, brings our hearts together at a time when we will feel the pain and remember our own memory books of 9/11.

NOTE: Thanks to Wassmann and a group of businesses and printers in the Greensboro area, PSG will print some 80,000 posters. The posters will be offered through September 11th or until the limited quantity is depleted. The "Remembrance" poster will be available at Wassmann Fine Arts, located at 34118 Pacific Coast Hwy. #1, Dana Point, CA. Visitors may pick up a poster beginning Aug. 15 and see Wassmann's exquisite collection of photographs of the memorial at his studio/gallery. Digital copies of the image can be down loaded by the press at http://aku-aku.com/download.

(Newport Beach, California-based Sara Pentz is a writer with a background as a journalist in TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. )
© Copyright 2002 Sara Pentz.. No unauthorized duplication without written consent.