‍When The Dust Settled: North Sullivan’s Untold Photographic Record The Week After 9/11

Sydney, 19th August 2026: Twenty five years ago, Sydney photographer North Sullivan found himself on a New York rooftop, drinking a cup of tea, when the first plane struck the North Tower. What followed changed the world, and for North, it also became the beginning of a deeply personal photographic record of what happened next.

For the first time this September, 186 never-before-publicly exhibited black and white photographs from that week will be brought together in When The Dust Settled, an intimate exhibition documenting the people, streets and communities of New York in the immediate aftermath of September 11.

While the world’s media focused its attention on Ground Zero, North turned his street-style photography towards the people living through the aftermath, capturing moments of grief, uncertainty, resilience and everyday life as New Yorkers attempted to process an event that had changed their city forever.

The exhibition will begin with an image of two NYPD officers standing on a rooftop with the Twin Towers visible in the distance on the evening before the attacks. The exhibition follows the journey through the days that followed, featuring hundreds of heart breaking missing person posters, and the stories and people behind it. Capturing a city in suspension: streets emptied of their usual rhythm, strangers coming together, messages of hope and loss appearing across the city, and the gradual return of everyday life.

The series concludes the following week, as Downtown begins to reopen and the New York Stock Exchange resumes trading, offering a rare visual timeline of a city moving from shock towards recovery.

“I wasn’t interested in photographing the spectacle. I wanted to photograph the people who were left behind and what happened to a city after the cameras moved on,” says North Sullivan.

‍“These photographs are about that week– the uncertainty, the sadness, the kindness and the extraordinary resilience of ordinary people.”

‍When The Dust Settled offers a different perspective on one of the most documented events in modern history: not the destruction itself, but the human story that unfolded in its shadow.

‍The exhibition will be hosted at The Photo Studio, Glebe, from 3 September to 2 November 2026, open Wednesday to Sunday, from 10:00 am until 4:00pm.

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‍For further information and interviews, please contact Richard Figuera at richard@eviltwinpr.com.au

Imagery here.

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© North Sullivan 2001

Opening Night

September 10th 2026 - 5:30 to 8:30

PhotoGRAF Gallery, Ground Floor, The Photo Studio,
62 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, Sydney, Australia 2037.

About North Sullivan

‍North Sullivan is a photographer, entrepreneur and founder of The Photo Studio Australia. Before establishing the business, North built a celebrated career as an advertising photographer, most notably capturing the first iconic Qantas Children’s Choir campaign across locations including New York, Venice, Patagonia and the Great Wall of China. In addition to iconic campaigns including the Olympic Torch Relay billboards that preceded the Torch’s epic journey around the country and four international tourism campaigns for Australia. His work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of NSW and Powerhouse Museum.