Durable Ephemera

In an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted the evening of last Sept. 11, 74 percent of respondents called the day’s events “a turning point that will fundamentally change things forever.” A year later, it’s hard to recapture the mood that prompted those answers. Photographic and video retrospectives have the curious effect of making 9/11 seem more remote, not more immediate. (One looks up from the images to ask, “Was it really just a year ago?”) Whether we’re reluctant or relieved to acknowledge it, we now know that little has changed in daily life.