It’s been near 15 years since the terror attacks of September 11 but the country has sworn never to forget and with the exhibition “And Then There Was Quiet: New York After 9/11” Sarasota artist Dave Gordon offers audiences an intimate glimpse of Ground Zero at ground level. Through a mix of documentary photography and art installation, Gordon illuminates the small and quiet moments of reflection and mourning often missed amidst the scale of the day’s events. Currently on display at Bradenton’s Downtown Central Library, the artists will be in attendance tonight at 6pm for an opening reception and discussion of the work and experience.

“Everybody who was there tried to photograph the big things,” says Gordon, who rushed from his home in Massachusetts to New York City in a matter of days. “I tried to focus on the small things and the intimate moments.” Featuring more than 20 large mounted photographs alongside smaller photographs and objects, the exhibit eschews grand vistas of destruction and the totality of the rescue efforts in lieu of snapshots and scenes of individual New Yorkers making their way in the aftermath. “I discovered a quiet and somber New York that was profoundly supportive,” he says, “and that the rest of the country was largely unaware of.”

Showing across the country at libraries and galleries and institutions such as the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington D.C., Gordon preserves these moments not only through his photography but a series of art installations recreating specific environments from those days, like a wall of missing posters from hopeful families or a makeshift shrine of candles and flowers arranged on the street. Another presents a world in dust like that which covered the streets of New York City.

“And Then There Was Quiet: New York After 9/11” runs through September 30 in Bradenton’s Downtown Central Library. The opening reception and artist talk begins tonight at 6pm. On September 10 the library will host a 9/11 remembrance where the public can share their memories of that day and take part in the creation of new artwork for consideration in future exhibits.