Survivors of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks make their way through smoke, dust and debris on Fulton St., about a block from the collapsed towers, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 in New York.

On September 11, 2001, Gulnara Samoilova was supposed to be in Russia working on a personal project. Instead, she witnessed the fall of the World Trade Center and was nearly buried alive in ash and debris. Working as a staff photographer for The Associated Press, Samoilova later won awards for her documentation of the day. In addition to Samoilova’s work, the Library has collected 2,500 photographs as part of the September 11 Photo Project, an archive that was crowdsourced from anyone who wanted to participate. The exhibition, shown at The New York Public Library and internationally, aimed to provide a way of grieving. Submissions came from all over, including Afghanistan, Moscow, and a prison in Oregon.