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There is an extraordinary camera in a studio in southern Manhattan, a 12-foot by 16-foot-high Polaroid. It is a one-of-a-kind instrument, designed in the 1970s at the behest of the visionary Edwin Land, who challenged his designers to make a camera as big as they could. It takes pictures that are 40 inches wide by 80 inches tall — larger than life-size — and yields images of striking immediacy and clarity. Its portraits reveal the person within.

Longtime LIFE photographer Joe McNally, architect of some of the biggest photographic productions ever attempted in the magazine industry, had used the camera, and when he saw what transpired at the World Trade Center, only blocks away from the studio, he felt that it would be worth the effort to create a document. Over the course of the two weeks, nearly 150 people involved in the tragedy — survivors, firemen, policemen, volunteers, doctors, nurses, widows, children, desperate searchers in the rubble — came before lens and, in a way, bared their souls.

"I've been shooting through tears a lot," said McNally. "I've heard countless stories of heroism, loss and recovery. It's interesting — I haven't heard a single bitter or angry word. The mood in the studio has been one of acceptance and healing. Anger has been absent."

McNally, at project's end, felt drained emotionally and physically, but convinced that the toil had been worthwhile, that his exhibit would stand as a dignified tribute to the courage displayed at Ground Zero. "I think this might be the one significant thing I will do as a photographer," said McNally, emphasizing that the victims of September 11 surely merit the tribute.

Tribute to 'Faces of Ground Zero'

Life-size photographs of rescue workers, survivors and relatives of victims of the World Trade Center attacks have gone on show at New York's famous train station - the Grand Central Terminal.

The 85 pictures were taken by photojournalist Joe McNally with the world's largest Polaroid camera.

Images for the exhibition - called Faces of Ground Zero - have been installed in a room next to the huge main concourse of the station.

"This is a wonderful contribution to the healing and restoring of confidence in our country," said former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was among those photographed for the show.

The portraits were shot in a studio near the ruins of the WTC.

Stunning reminder

Mr McNally said the people were amazing.

"They are simple, straightforward people, but they did extraordinary things."

"The exhibition is a stunning reminder of that day," said Robert Scott, president of financial firm Morgan Stanley - one of the show's sponsors.

"People need to confront this. People want to remember what happened to us."

The exhibition, which is free, opens to the public on Wednesday and runs until 20 January.

It will then move to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London.

More than half a million commuters pass through the 89-year-old terminal each day.

The camera used by Mr McNally, known as Moby C, is 12 feet (4m) high, 12 feet wide and 16 feet (over 5m) long and can produce highly detailed life-size pictures in about 90 seconds.

It was invented by the founder of Polaroid, the late Edwin Land, and was kept for years in the basement of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where it known simply as "the Museum Camera".

It is now owned by Canadian photographer and filmmaker Gregory Colbert.