April 2, 2006

click on image to enlarge

I really thought I was going to be able to change the focus of this blog. I am tired of Katrina and her constant presence on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As time goes on, I have realized that there is just no way around it. We will be in Katrina recovery for years to come. I am still taking hundreds of photos to document the damage down here and yet I rarely show them to anyone outside the area. I keep hoping to take that one magical photo that I can show to an outsider and they will say, "Oh, now I understand.". It can't be done. Many professional photographers have published thousands of pictures and yet every single person I have met from outside the area, is surprised at the actual destruction when they get here. They have seen the pictures, they have seen the videos and they all say they same thing. It is so much worse in real life. The images they have seen do not show a fraction of the devastation. On my way home from my sister's house yesterday, I stopped to take some pictures. I ran into a man who was down here from Chicago with a group of about 30 men from a Baptist church. They were all in construction and had come down here for a week to rebuild a house. As he and I stared out over the Ocean Springs bridge that local politicians are still fighting over how to rebuild, I thought about what a wonderful thing it was that this man and his church and cut through the red tape, came down here and rebuilt a house. I told him if we had more people like him, and less politicians, we would be far better off by now.

click on picture to enlarge


This picture is one that I thought would be a good one. It is of the remains of maybe 3 or 4 houses in a wash about a mile from the ocean. When you look at this huge field of debris in the middle of the woods, you get an idea of how strong the storm was. When you look at the picture, you only see a small pile of trash. It is very frustrating not to be able to share the extent of the damage or the emotion that goes with it. I keep thinking if I was a better photographer, or a better writer, I could bring outsiders into our world. So far, I feel like I am not succeeding at all.