Photos Of Found Objects At Ground Zero

Photographer Ira Block, like many others, was armed with a camera the day the twin towers fell. He was there the next day, covering the aftermath. And six months later when the blue light memorial was shining.

Most recently, he has photographed at the new National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which opens next year. This time, he was photographing found objects from Ground Zero. A necklace, a note, a shoe: personal items that belonged to those who perished.

"It was hard in some ways to look at these objects," he said on the phone. After years of working with National Geographic, he has covered archaeology extensively. "So I've kind of dealt with the idea of death in a culture before. But usually it's an ancient culture ... here it was my own culture."

Here are a few of the found objects. You can see the rest, in collage-format, on National Geographic's website.