The differences in the photos are striking. So are the similarities.

In both photos, men with briefcases are walking down a New York street. In both, a sign advertises an “Early Bird Special” for a parking garage.

But in the first photo – taken Sept. 11, 2001, smoke and dust make it impossible to see much more than a few feet in front of the lens, much less the large buildings across the street.

In the more recent photo, taken this summer, it’s a clear day.

The “then and now” photo pair is part of a series taken by Associated Press photographers on or around Sept. 11, 2001, and again recently, to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“We wanted to revisit some of the iconic images of September 11 five years ago, but we also wanted to freshen the exhibit so it wouldn’t be just a look back,” says Chuck Zoeller, director of the AP Photo Library in New York. “So we asked the same photographers who had shot some of the better-known images five years ago to rephotograph those scenes using the same position, angle and lens – to try to replicate that same scene as exactly as possible.”

Above is a scene on Beekman Street in New York near the World Trade Center collapse on Sept. 11, 2001. Below is the same site in June 2006. An exhibit that will be at the Dole Institute of Politics examines a series of sites affected by the terrorist attacks.

The resulting four-panel exhibit, which includes eight sets of photos, will be on display Saturday through Sept. 12 at the Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University. An accompanying 10-minute video shows the photographers recounting their experiences taking the photos.

The exhibit, one of four that will be traveling the nation in upcoming months, will be on display near the two columns from the World Trade Center that are permanently in the main hall of the institute.

In addition to the World Trade Center, there are photos of the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania where United Flight 93 crashed.

At left, pedestrians on Park Row flee the area of the World Trade Center as the center's south tower collapses following the terrorist attack on the New York landmark on Sept. 11, 2001. At right a cyclist pedals south on New York's Park Row in June 2006. More before-and-after 9-11 images will be on display starting Saturday at the Dole Institute of Politics on Kansas University's west campus. Admission is free.

“They’re striking in different ways,” says Zoeller, who helped spearhead the project. “Some of them are relatively obvious because of the construction that has gone on and things have been restored or rebuilt. Others are striking just because of the absence of the towers or just the dramatic void.”

Jean Bischoff, the institute’s archivist, says she thinks seeing the photos next to the Trade Center columns will make for a dramatic contrast of its own right. On one hand is the massive steel material, which reminds viewers of the planning and work that it took to build the towers. On the other hand are the attacks and how quickly the towers were demolished.

“I think the main thing that comes to my mind is it was only five years ago, but it is very distant in some people’s minds,” Bischoff says. “This brings us back to that day five years ago when we were all watching it all on TV. Everybody remembers what they were doing. This will probably stir up those memories.”