When I first held my uncle Tex's camera, it felt heavier than metal and glass. He'd walked the streets of east London carrying it for decades, capturing a spirit that went overlooked. The mundane became something else when he looked at it. He caught people as they really were: quietly proud, fiercely unique and full of life. His shots were never about glamour or style, although they often had that in spades; They were about connection. You could feel the life in them.
The New York Public Library has acquired a massive collection of more than 1,200 hours of video documenting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, its immediate aftermath, and the subsequent design and construction of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. The CameraPlanet archive, which consists of footage recorded by more than 130 New Yorkers using consumer cameras, captures the havoc and devastation of the attacks, as well as the resilience of New Yorkers during one of their most challenging moments in history.