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New Orleans Recovery On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina brought unimagined devastation to New Orleans, as well as the surrounding parishes, and Mississippi Gulf Coast. Within a month, Hurricane Rita mercilessly hit land near the Louisiana-Texas border, wiping away coastal communities, and re-flooding parts of New Orleans inundated by Katrina. Thousands of lives were lost, and hundreds of thousands more cast into disarray from the costliest disaster in U.S. history. I arrived in New Orleans one week after Katrina to photograph the hurricane’s aftermath. The city where I had lived five years previously was 80% covered in water and in total disarray. Accompanying rescue parties, I rode in boats down flooded streets that I once drove my car to do daily errands. I witnessed people gathered at the Convention Center dehydrated, exhausted and angry—and saw the faces of former neighbors. As I made daily visits to my old neighborhood of Bywater, spared from the worst flooding, I gave old friends water, gas and rides. Later, I would be re-united with former neighbors as they returned to the city. Documenting the aftermath throughout the city, I went with families as they visited their decimated houses for the first time. I saw many weep in mourning for a home and a life that will never be again. There were times it was hard to take pictures, but I decided I needed to show the human impact and gravity of what had happened. The people who appeared in my photographs agreed. After seeing the devastation and human toll first-hand, I decided to move back to New Orleans permanently. I wanted to devote myself to documenting the recovery of the city and Gulf Coast region. These photographs are a body of work generated while on assignment and on my own. They show residents in various stages following the hurricanes: from the flooding, the return home, the clean-up, rebuilding, life in FEMA trailers, the first Mardi Gras and return of cultural vitality. They are, most importantly, the best examples of my efforts to create an accurate and poignant portrayal of life after the storms. |