PHOTOS: Eugene Richards lives in Brooklyn, but was out of the country on September 11, 2001. When he returned to New York City four days later, he has written, he "metamorphosed into a bruise." He stayed home, convinced that no one needed another photographer surveying the wreckage. But Richards's wife and collaborator, Janine Altongy, insisted that they go see it. "You can't avoid history, not when you're so close to it," he remembers her saying. Over the course of several months, Richards and Altongy traversed the city, recording scenes of loss from the long aftermath of the attacks. Their 2002 book, Stepping Through the Ashes, is a collection of Richards's photographs and Altongy's interviews with survivors, bereaved family members, first responders, and others.