NEW YORK—In a moving New York Times editorial today, artist Ed Ruscha discusses how he recalls the Twin Towers by looking at an old photograph he took of the New York skyline in the early ’60s, before the towers were built.

“When I look at the picture, which is over my desk in Los Angeles, I look for the towers, even though I know it’s impossible for them to be there," he writes. "It’s hard to look at a photograph of that part of the city, no matter when it was taken, and not want to see them.”