A Manhattan photographer is scamming the public by billing himself as the “official” photographer for the firefighters union – and may have illegally taken artifacts from Ground Zero for his new 9/11 exhibition, The Post has learned.
Photographer Gary Suson, who gained rare access to the site during the recovery, is scheduled to open the Ground Zero Museum Workshop on West 14th Street on the fourth anniversary of the attacks in two weeks.
He plans to charge $15 admission and says he will give the proceeds to six charities.
The exhibit will feature photographs and objects recovered from Ground Zero, including a child’s stuffed teddy bear, a battered cellphone, a walkie-talkie, a rag doll and a pair of twisted eyeglasses.
Suson said he retrieved the items during the recovery from a Dumpster on the edge of Ground Zero.
But FDNY and NYPD officials have raised questions about his possession of the artifacts.
“No one was authorized to take artifacts, whether they were personal belongings or dangling from a Dumpster,” FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon told The Post.
A law-enforcement source said that Ground Zero was declared a “crime scene” after the attacks and said “personal artifacts are the property of the people who own them.”
A police spokesman said the NYPD “has gone to great lengths to return property to survivors and relatives of those who were lost and continues to do so.”
Possession of the artifacts could be illegal, the source said.
“You can’t tamper with a crime scene and take stuff from [it],” he said.
Suson said he did not think that loved ones of the 9/11 victims would want the items he has.
“Do I claim ownership of garbage? Yes,” said Suson.
The photographer said a fire chief – whose name he could not provide – gave him permission to rummage through the Dumpster.
Meanwhile, FDNY union officials are preparing to send a letter to Suson demanding he stop claiming he worked as its official photographer.
On the exhibit’s Web site, groundzeromuseumworkshop.- com, Suson says he is the “official” photographer at Ground Zero for the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
Suson says a 2002 joint “letter of introduction” from the UFA and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association allows him to use the title “official,” although the word appears nowhere in the letter.
The FDNY and union officials said there is no such title, but one ex-union official said Suson was given it.
Current union officials and the FDNY also charge Suson has not honored his pledge to donate thousands of dollars in proceeds from 9/11 artwork he sold.