Photograph, Print
Katrina Marino, wife of the late firefighter Kenneth Marino of Rescue 1, FDNY, pictured with daughter Kristin and son Tyler
- Description
- Life-sized Polaroid photograph taken by Joe McNally depicting victim family member Katrina Marino with her daughter, Kristin and son, Tyler. An FDNY baseball cap belonging to Katrina's husband, Kenneth Joseph Marino, Rescue 1, sits on the ground next to them. Kristin is holding a Dorothy doll from the Wizard of Oz and Tyler is holding a small fire truck toy.
- Historical Notes
- Brooklyn-born Kenneth Marino lived in Monroe, New York, with his wife, Katrina, and their two young children. He began firefighting as a volunteer at age 18 and joined the FDNY a decade later.
On the morning of September 11, Katrina Marino surprised her husband by dropping by his midtown Manhattan firehouse with the children. Kenny took his young daughter aside to tell her about a prize awaiting her back home. Upon departing the firehouse, Katrina, a former flight attendant, noticed a low-flying commercial aircraft overhead, curiously descending. When she later received confirmation of the two hijacked strikes on the Twin Towers, she assumed that her husband’s highly trained Rescue 1 unit would have deployed to the scene immediately.
When Katrina Marino and the children arrived at McNally’s downtown studio in October, Firefighter Marino was still considered missing. "Kenny was listed as injured and I was very hopeful, but later they said it was a mistake," Katrina explained at the photo shoot. When the invitation to participate in McNally’s project arrived, she elected to bring a few personal family mementos with her. In addition to Kenny’s Rescue 1 cap, Kristin is seen clutching the prize her father had told her about at the firehouse on the morning of September 11, a Dorothy doll from the Wizard of Oz. Her brother Tyler's Scarecrow doll is to the left, slightly out of frame.
In addition to its inclusion in an exhibition and related book for the Faces of Ground Zero, this photograph appeared in the early commemorative Life publication One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001.
Curator's Comment
In the weeks after September 11, LIFE Magazine photographer Joe McNally (b. 1952) invited rescuers, recovery workers, survivors, and bereaved family members to a studio in Manhattan’s Bowery district, not far from Ground Zero. Here, the participants were memorialized by a unique Polaroid camera—dubbed the Moby C—equipped with a lens from a U-2 spy plane. This room-sized instrument could capture an exposure of singular clarity on an eight-foot tall piece of film in the blackened studio. Each 90-second session required meticulous staging and absolute stillness. Whereas most photographers were concentrating on documenting the devastation of the attacks downtown, McNally was interested in recording the heroism and sorrow etched into the human faces at the center of this national tragedy. Those who faced the camera were mostly everyday people who sought no special recognition. “They came only with the intention of participating in a project, telling their story, and sharing in the telling of others,” McNally reflected.
The 9/11 Memorial Museum has enjoyed a long relationship with McNally's images. In 2006, McNally donated his portrait of FDNY Ladder 20 firefighter Adrienne Walsh to support the Museum’s nascent permanent collection. When the outdoor Memorial opened to the public in 2011, a selection from the series was borrowed from the photographer and rotated onto view in the temporary Visitor Center at 90 West Street. Annual acquisitions from the Faces of Ground Zero archive have continued, often as gifts arranged by McNally. In 2017, the Museum assumed custody of the remaining Polaroids in an agreement that will result in the collection’s completed donation by 2027.
The image in this record is the product of a color transparency from a Mamiya RZ 6x7 Pro II 120 format camera that McNally positioned to record a shot simultaneous with the Polaroid Moby C’s flash of light. The unique, original Polaroid exhibits a more subtle and creamier tonality.
The 9/11 Memorial Museum has enjoyed a long relationship with McNally's images. In 2006, McNally donated his portrait of FDNY Ladder 20 firefighter Adrienne Walsh to support the Museum’s nascent permanent collection. When the outdoor Memorial opened to the public in 2011, a selection from the series was borrowed from the photographer and rotated onto view in the temporary Visitor Center at 90 West Street. Annual acquisitions from the Faces of Ground Zero archive have continued, often as gifts arranged by McNally. In 2017, the Museum assumed custody of the remaining Polaroids in an agreement that will result in the collection’s completed donation by 2027.
The image in this record is the product of a color transparency from a Mamiya RZ 6x7 Pro II 120 format camera that McNally positioned to record a shot simultaneous with the Polaroid Moby C’s flash of light. The unique, original Polaroid exhibits a more subtle and creamier tonality.
- Accession Number: C.2013.644.3
- Dimensions: 109 in X 44 in X 0.08 in
- Dimensions (Metric): 276.86 cm X 111.76 cm X 0.2032 cm
- Source: Joseph McNally
- Credit Line: Gift of Joe McNally in thanks for Related Companies' generous support of the "Faces of Ground Zero - 10 Years Later" Exhibit, 2011. Courtesy, Ellen Price, Inc. © Joe McNally.
ChildrenFamily MembersNew York City Fire Department (FDNY)Photographer and Videographer: Professional
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