Post-Katrina New Orleans

Post-Katrina New Orleans, A photographic series shot between November 2006- May 2007 by Julie Dermansky Robert Greenwald used some of these still in When The Saints Go Marching In :
whenthesaints.org/whenthesaints.php



Artist statement

My photographs document New Orleans from November 2006 -May 2007, over a year after hurricane Katrina struck (more photos will be added to the collection this November). I began the series while shooting Tulane’s natural history collection, which is part of an ongoing series documenting natural history museum collections. The damage left in Katrina’s wake both stunned and inspired me. I found myself embarrassed that despite having watched media reports about the storm, I had no idea of the large swatch of land that still lay in ruin. Damage stretched from streets bordering the French Quarter to the furthermost reaches of the city. Every corner I turned, every home, school or commercial establishment I entered offered up its story to me. All I had to do was compose the shots and brave the stench and unsafe conditions to take them. I also collected objects out of the ruined buildings slated for demolition, acting as an anthropologist, rescuing bits of ruined lives, and re-photographed them in a studio situation, much like the work I was doing simultaneously at Tulane Natural History Museum. This series grew out of my need to have a personal understanding of both the disaster itself and the current state of New Orleans, the city where I began my career as an artist in the late 1980’s.

New Orleans, a city with iconic status, representing America’s “free spirit” has been left in a state of decay. It is an epic story of tragic proportions, illustrating our society’s failure on many levels from dealing with issues of racism, class, climate change, and a disregard for America’s cultural heritage by the current administration in its negligence in coping with the disaster. The series focuses on our culture's icons, embedded with tragic irony in the case of New Orleans. My work illuminates the devastating effects climate change will have on America’s failing infrastructure in cities that are full of literal and metaphysical cracks.

The Field museum in Chicago is useing some of my images for a show they are doing on climate change called “nature Unleased” that opened in May 2008 and will travel to seven other museums over two years..
© Julie Dermansky, All Rights Reserved. Use Without Permission Strictly Prohibited
To purchase fine art prints, or to license this email juliedermansky@yahoo.com

316 photos | 7,582 views

items are from between 10 Nov 2006 & 15 Jul 2007.