Drawing

Mitchel Rosen (b. 1958) worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD) from 1980 until his retirement in 2006.

From roughly 1992 to 1999, Rosen patrolled the buildings in the World Trade Center complex. In September 2001, Rosen was working highway patrol at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey when the Towers were attacked. Rosen responded to the World Trade Center along with his coworker Bruce Albert Reynolds, who was later killed when the North Tower collapsed. They took separate cars and parted ways when they arrived downtown following the collapse of the South Tower. Rosen returned to Ground Zero a few days later and spent the next few weeks participating in rescue and recovery operations.

A self-taught artist, Rosen creates highly detailed and realistic drawings. Using colored pencils as his medium, Rosen’s artistic objective is to “capture the precise moment in time that creates an emotional tie to the viewer.” The majority of Rosen’s artwork is comprised of elaborate New York City streetscapes tied to his 26 years of experience as a PAPD Officer.

In 2017, Rosen began working on a new drawing that he later titled, Search for Heroes. After revisiting the collection of personal photos that he captured during his time at Ground Zero, he landed on one taken on September 12 that depicts responders from widespread agencies on the bucket brigade. In total, it took Rosen approximately a hundred hours to complete the drawing, finished in 2018. Rosen explained that he never had any intention of making art out of the photographs that he took at Ground Zero but was inspired to do something after a visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.