Missing-Person Posters from 9/11 Take Center Stage in Brooklyn Church Exhibition

An installation titled “The 9/11 Missing Posters” opens this week at Most Holy Trinity – St Mary’s church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Curated by photographer Phil Buehler together with Sarah Celentano and Olena Speranska, the show displays 144 images of missing-person flyers that appeared in the immediate aftermath of the September 2001 attacks. The photographs are mounted on 24 translucent vellum panels arranged in vertical pairs that echo the silhouette of the former twin towers.

The Guardian

In the chaotic hours after the attacks, families and coworkers posted handwritten flyers on fences, storefronts and subway entrances, seeking any clue about loved ones who had not returned. The flyers listed concrete details—height, weight, tattoos, scars, clothing—alongside personal notes such as “Please find daddy.” As rescue efforts revealed only twisted steel, the tone of the flyers shifted from “missing” to informal memorials, noting occupations, children and community roles.

The Guardian

• Phil Buehler – photographer who documented the towers since his teenage years and captured more than 500 missing-person flyers in the weeks following the attacks.

The Guardian

• Sarah Celentano – Brooklyn-based curator and medievalist who co-curated the exhibition, emphasizing the dual meaning of “countenance” as both facial presence and inner aura.

The Guardian

• Olena Speranska – co-curator, a Ukrainian refugee whose perspective adds a contemporary lens on collective memory.

The Guardian

• Father Rick Riccioli – Franciscan friar and pastor of the host church, who welcomed the project as an act of kinship and prayer.

The Guardian

• Over 500 missing-person flyers were photographed by Buehler; 144 are displayed in the exhibition.

The Guardian

• The images occupy 24 panels, each panel pairing two flyers to mirror the twin-tower configuration.

The Guardian

• The original flyers appeared on a wide cross-section of New York City workers: Wall Street bankers, firefighters, paramedics, transit staff, restaurant servers and immigrants of Latino, Asian, Black and white backgrounds.

The Guardian

By situating the flyers within a sacred space rather than a conventional gallery, the exhibition underscores the personal loss behind the national tragedy and invites viewers to confront the human stories that statistics often obscure. The project also highlights how grassroots memorial practices—posters, shrines, community vigils—shaped collective grieving in an era before digital sharing.

Chester and District Standard

The exhibition will run through the remainder of the anniversary month, after which the curators plan to archive the remaining photographs for future research on public memory of the attacks.

The Guardian