Reading the Pictures -- Space Shuttle in the Skies of Manhattan: The Healing

Do photos heal?

For pure spectacle, it's hard to top the imagery of the Space Shuttle gliding through the skies of San Francisco, Washington and New York, creating powerful juxtapositions with America's most cherished and symbolic landscapes, monuments and landmarks. I imagine there's an e-book's-worth of symbolism here and I'm curious to hear what you read in these photos. For myself, however, I can't look at the Shuttle seeming to thread its way in and among the New York cityscape without recalling those other scenes burned into my psyche and America's brain, of airliners -- angels of death -- flying low through the town in remarkable proximity to homes and histories and essences of power and critical nerve centers, and finally, unimaginably....

Against that background, how soothing and cathartic these visuals are. Laid over eidetic memories of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, like cataracts now in the country's inner eye, these gentle and curious photographs bind themselves to our best "where were you when!?" questions, and the symbolism of some of America's most exciting and proud feelings, recollections and national moments (first man to orbit the earth, Friendship 7 splashdown, first man on the moon, our romance with JFK and his with space, and on and on).

Of course, you wouldn't have as many photos of the craft and Old Glory, and the ironic impact of the craft "almost contacting" the Freedom Tower without (re-)activating feelings of dominance and American exceptionalism, and jingoism, too.

But what makes these images so visceral is not just the history and the landscape but the makeup of the vehicle itself, the visual of the craft emanating qualities of romance, nurturance and rebirth. Businessweek reminded us recently how much the visage of the Space Shuttle evokes sexual (and procreative) thrill and, more strongly for the healing, the maternal suggestion is undeniable here, the steady 747 carrying the exhausted Space Shuttle like a best-of-Nature Channel, Mommy/baby-on-her-back standard on a million screen savers.

When the injury is that deep, healing doesn't happen in a scene or a moment, but in oh-so-many moments over quite some time... like these.

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BagNewsNotes: Today's media images analyzed. Topping LIFE.com's 2011 Best Photo Blogs, follow us at BAG Twitter and BAG Facebook.

(photo 1 & 3: Lucas Jackson/Reuters caption 1: The Space Shuttle Enterprise rides atop a NASA modified 747 plane as they fly past the Empire State Building over New York April 27, 2012. The Space Shuttle Enterprise officially arrived in New York to be placed at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum..photo 2: Michael Heiman/Getty Images photo 4: J. Scott Applewhite caption: Hitching a ride on top a special NASA Boeing 747 jet, the space shuttle Discovery soars past Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 17, 2012, after a flight from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Discovery, the world's most traveled spaceship, now becomes an attraction at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., next to Dulles International Airport.photo 5: Michael Nagle/Getty Images caption: Spectators watch space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, fly down the Hudson River...)

 

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Comments

[Seastink]

03:38 PM on 05/01/2012

That would have been awesome to be on the Empire State Building observation deck and watch the shuttle carrier and orbiter fly by below you.

[pjdenning]

03:14 PM on 05/01/2012

It's one of those great American moments of pride to see these photos. The triumph of our ingenuity embodied in the shuttle flying through a skyline tinged with memories of the shock and sadness of 9/11. But it all comes together in a renewal of the American spirit as the Freedom Tower reaches to the sky and the best example of our technological greatness glides by in its final flight. In a word, awesome.

[Truth Always Hurts]

01:20 PM on 05/01/2012

USA, USA, USA!

[jerrymar]

09:03 PM on 04/30/2012

These fantastic pics are all worth at least a thousand words. Aside from the sheer coolness, there's great symbolism in the shot of the Enterprise flying by the Empire State Bldg. When it was finished in 1931, the Empire State Bldg was a symbol of the modern age, the United States reaching into the sky. Less than 50 years later the space shuttle became that symbol for us when the first one separated from the top of a 747 and glided to land on its own. That first space shuttle was this one, the Enterprise. When it was finished, it was the most advanced working space vehicle (maybe the most advanced vehicle, period) in the world and it held that spot for close to 40 years, just like the Empire State held the top of its niche - the tallest building in the world - for 40 years till the World Trade Ctr north tower was finished in 1972. Now at the end of its run, the space shuttle, late 20th century symbol of American ingenuity and imagination, visits its early 20th century counterpart on the way to retirement. And this event took place just 3 days before today, when the new WTC rose higher than the Empire State Bldg to reclaim the spot its predecessor first took ..... you guessed it, 40 years ago. Images like this show what we can do as a people when we stop bickering long enough to find solutions. (Jerry Marsella)

[Cailleach9]

01:47 PM on 04/30/2012

How ironic to post this photograph on the same page as "Leda and the Swan." Actually, I like both. They are beautiful images. Leda shouldn't be in the window, however.