Freshkills

The photographs in this series began in 1999 as a commission by the NYC Department of Sanitation to document the final year of operations at the Fresh Kills Landfill. At the time Fresh Kills was considered one of the largest landfills in the world and had received 52 years of refuse from the City of New York.

In July of 2001, the landfill was officially closed.

Three months later after the events of September 11th 2001 the landfill was reopened to accept the debris from the collapse of the World Trade Center. Ultimately, the enormous size of Fresh Kills, its wide open spaces and relative remoteness, made it an ideal location to carry out one of the largest investigations in American history.

Over the next eight months investigators from the FBI, NYPD, and Port Authority Police, combed through 1.5 million tons of debris. The monumental work of collecting the remains of victims, and their personal effects, brought closure to many families affected by this tragedy.