Joe McNally’s Faces of Ground Zero: The giant Polaroids, 25 years later

Summary

• Joe McNally created Faces of Ground Zero in the weeks after September 11, 2001
• The Giant Polaroid Moby C was roughly the size of a small garage
• The Polaroid photographs measured about 40 × 80 inches and showed people at nearly life size
• A Mamiya RZ 6×7 Pro II simultaneously recorded a color 6×7 slide
• A total of 272 people were photographed and the complete collection contains 246 images
• Eighteen portraits are currently displayed at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum
• Adorama marked the 25th anniversary with a special Joe McNally presentation on September 10, 2026

Twenty-five years after September 11, Joe McNally’s Faces of Ground Zero is back in the spotlight, a photographic project created with a unique Giant Polaroid camera the size of a small garage.

In the weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks, McNally invited rescuers, recovery workers, survivors, bereaved family members and others directly connected to the tragedy to a studio in Manhattan’s Bowery district. There he created Faces of Ground Zero, a series that is now part of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum collection.

The project stands out not only because of the people depicted, but also because of the way the images were made. The Giant Polaroid Moby C was an enormous, almost handmade photographic system that required the subject to remain still, the photographer to work in darkness and two technicians to work literally inside the camera.

The Polaroid camera the size of a small garage

The Moby C was the only Giant Polaroid camera of its kind in the world and, according to McNally himself, was roughly the size of a one-car garage. Two technicians worked inside it to prepare the photographic material before every exposure.

The camera had been created at the request of Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid process. McNally also says that, according to the story surrounding the camera, its huge lens came from a U-2 spy plane. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum also records this detail in its collection documentation.

McNally was already familiar with the Moby C before September 11. In 2000, National Geographic had assigned him to use it for a small story that was ultimately never published. That experience led him back to the camera when he began looking for a different way to portray the people at the center of the events.

An image roughly two metres tall

The Moby C produced positive Polaroid photographs measuring approximately 40 × 80 inches, or about 102 × 203 centimetres. When framed for exhibition, they could reach roughly 4 × 9 feet, turning every portrait into an almost life-size physical presence in front of the viewer.

Works in the 9/11 Memorial & Museum collection have overall dimensions of approximately 276.9 × 111.8 centimetres. The Museum itself currently presents selected portraits at approximately life size.

This scale was a fundamental part of McNally’s concept. Someone standing in front of one of the photographs was not looking at a small documentary image on a wall, but encountering the person depicted almost face to face.

The portrait session was almost a ritual

The Moby C did not operate like a conventional camera. McNally could not simply turn a focusing ring on the lens. At f/45 the depth of field was extremely shallow, described by the photographer on different occasions as roughly half an inch to one inch, so focus was achieved by moving the subject forward or backward in tiny increments.

The camera had no conventional shutter. Once the technicians completed their preparation, the studio lights were switched off and McNally removed the cap from the huge lens. The person in front of the camera then had to remain completely still in darkness until the extremely powerful flash system fired.

McNally has described approximately 25,000 watt-seconds of power in one account and around 20,000 to 30,000 watt-seconds in a later description. In another recollection he mentioned roughly 35,000 watt-seconds, suggesting that the exact output could vary depending on the individual setup.

A 6×7 slide was recorded alongside the Giant Polaroid

Under the Moby C’s lens, McNally positioned a Mamiya RZ 6×7 Pro II loaded with 120 film. The camera was aligned to record the same instant as the Giant Polaroid while using the same flash.

As a result, a successful exposure could produce two records of the same moment: the unique giant positive Polaroid photograph and a second frame on 6×7 color slide film. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum confirms that several large works in its collection derive from these Mamiya color transparencies.

The second exposure was particularly important because the original Giant Polaroid was a one-of-a-kind physical object. The 6×7 slide provided a parallel photographic original in a far more manageable format.

The Polaroid developed inside the camera

After exposure, the large sheet was laid out on the camera floor. McNally describes waiting about 90 seconds before peeling away the chemical backing, essentially following the same instant-development principle as a conventional Polaroid, but on a massive scale.

Each sheet cost approximately $300, which meant the photographer did not have the luxury of making many test shots. McNally has said that around 90% of his subjects were photographed in a single exposure.

One exception was firefighter Jason Cascone, whom McNally photographed four times. Cascone was repeatedly caught off guard by the sudden burst of flash in the darkened studio. His first day of work as a probationary firefighter was September 11, 2001.

The people in front of the lens

Over approximately three weeks, 272 people stood before the Giant Polaroid. They included firefighters, rescuers, paramedics, recovery workers, volunteers, survivors and relatives of people who had been killed.

The number of people is not the same as the number of photographs. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum states that the complete collection consists of 246 images, since some portraits contain more than one person.

Among the people represented are FDNY Squad 18 firefighter Harry Davis, Jason Cascone, firefighter Adrienne Walsh, paramedic Juana Lomi, Lieutenant Jacob Chin and American Red Cross volunteer Melissa van Wijk.

McNally was not trying to make yet another series of photographs of the ruins of the Twin Towers. As he has explained, many photographers had already documented the destruction. He was looking for a way to portray the people caught up in rescue, loss and recovery.

From the Bowery to the Museum

The portraits were made in a dedicated studio on East 2nd Street, near the Bowery and not far from Ground Zero. The series quickly developed into one of the defining projects of McNally’s career.

The giant photographs were shown in touring exhibitions and returned to New York for the first anniversary of September 11 at Rockefeller Center. The project also became a book and helped generate close to $2 million for post-9/11 relief efforts.

The project’s relationship with the 9/11 Memorial & Museum grew over time. The first portrait from the series acquired by the Museum was Adrienne Walsh’s in 2006. In 2017, the Museum assumed custody of the remaining Giant Polaroid works under an agreement expected to complete the donation of the collection by 2027.

The exhibition 25 years later

Faces of Ground Zero: Photographs by Joe McNally is installed in the North Tower Excavation at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and features 18 portraits selected from the complete collection of 246 images. The works are displayed at approximately life size.

The 25th anniversary was also marked by the special event Faces of Ground Zero: 25 Years Later at Adorama in New York on September 10, 2026. McNally shared the story behind the project and the portraits of 272 people whose lives intersected with September 11.

The anniversary also arrives as other institutions revisit the photographic record of September 11. PTTL has covered the New York State Museum’s Witness to 9/11 exhibition, featuring more than 60 photographs by Todd Maisel and David Handschuh documenting the attacks and their aftermath. PTTL’s coverage of Witness to 9/11

What we think

Faces of Ground Zero demonstrates unusually clearly how photographic technology can become part of the meaning of the image itself. The Giant Polaroid was not used simply because it was spectacular: its size, difficulty, slow preparation and demand for absolute stillness transformed each exposure into a deliberate encounter between photographer and subject.

Twenty-five years later, the unusual technique still fascinates, but the real strength of the project lies elsewhere: in the faces of people photographed when September 11 was not yet history, but a reality only weeks old.

Frequently asked questions

What camera did Joe McNally use?

He used the Giant Polaroid Moby C, a unique camera roughly the size of a one-car garage, with two technicians working inside it.

How large were the Polaroid photographs?

The image itself measured about 40 × 80 inches, or approximately 102 × 203 centimetres. Framed works could reach roughly 4 × 9 feet.

Why did he also use a Mamiya 6×7?

The Mamiya RZ 6×7 Pro II was aligned with the Giant Polaroid and simultaneously captured a color 6×7 slide using the same flash, providing a second photographic original of the same moment.

How many people were photographed?

A total of 272 people stood before the camera, while the Museum’s complete collection contains 246 images because some are group portraits.

Where are the photographs displayed today?

Eighteen portraits are displayed in Faces of Ground Zero: Photographs by Joe McNally in the North Tower Excavation at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York.