essay: Katrina's legacy
Mar 22, 2009 21:07:27 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Mar 22, 2009 21:07:27 GMT
There are undoubtedly some very worthy entries on the dream assignment site, but I am asking you all to vote for this one.
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New Orleans then and now: Katrina's legacy five years later
I want to document the current state of New Orleans and the areas of the south affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as the survivors across the US and how they've coped, succeeded, failed, and triumphed in the years since 8/29/2005.
I was born and raised in New Orleans and I love the city with its history, culture, food, and laissez-faire attitude. In my heart I will always be a New Orleanian, however, in 2005 I decided to leave the city, tired of the crime, corruption, and lack of progress. Little did I know that this would be a decision which would weigh more heavily than I ever could have expected. Looking for a new life, I moved to Las Vegas on April 29th, 2005 after living in New Orleans for almost 35 years. Four months later to the day, hurricane Katrina hit and my girlfriend and I watched in stunned amazement as our former home became national news and legendary tragedy. Her parents were trapped in the Popeye's Diversified Foods warehouse for seven days and had to be rescued by boat. My girlfriend and I still had New Orleans area cell phone numbers and our phones would not work, as was the case with about 75% of the rest of the New Orleans population. We only found out that her parents were OK when they were able to send a text message to a friend in Colorado, who in turn called us to let us know they were ok. I had postings listed on Craig's list asking where lost friends and family had gone. I received messages from all over the country from friends and relatives of friends and relatives who gave me their status, which I faithfully updated daily on my posting. The news was awash with stories of the deaths, suicides, damage, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced, confused, lost and without any money or place to stay, and total uncertainty about what the future held in store for them. Many of my friends instantly became unemployed and homeless, not to mention having lost all contact with friends and loved ones, and not really knowing the full extent of the damage...not to mention watching their hometown being completely ripped apart. Through all of this, my girlfriend and I suffered for our loved ones, unable to help.
In November of that year, finally able to afford to travel, my girlfriend and I drove back to New Orleans to visit friends and family, celebrate Thanksgiving, and, of course, to see for ourselves. What I witnessed was truly shocking: damage as far as the eye could see, 100 year old Oaks blown to bits, entire blocks abandoned, houses shifted off of their foundations, cars stacked three high and on top of houses, the familiar "X's" marking each house, some with numbers to indicate how many were found dead inside. In a strange way, I was so fascinated by the sheer enormity of it all that I remained strangely detached. I did not have a childhood home in New Orleans and I moved away willingly. It was not until we visited my girlfriend's house and I watched her sob uncontrollably when she finally saw her own home and the extent of the damage and came to terms that all of her childhood memories were gone. At that point I became truly heartbroken. Soon after that I saw the homes of my friends which had been completely submerged and I was confronted with watching people look at their entire lives after they had been turned upside down and flushed away. Yearbooks, photos, wedding albums, keepsakes damaged, drowned, destroyed. It was at this point that the true enormity of the situation became real and I came to understand the psychological burden that so many had been forced to shoulder in an instant. No one in New Orleans ever really took hurricanes seriously....we used to go out to the bars or have parties. If you did leave town you took a few bucks and a change of clothes and treated it like a short vacation. How could you know that the clothes on your back would be the only thing you would own three days later??
All of my friends and family ended up in cities all over the country...unwilling new residents. Some of them went back to rebuild...some of them stayed where they were and accepted charitable donations and set out looking for jobs...some of them called moms, dads, aunts and uncles and moved to D.C., Atlanta, Boston, L.A..... WHEREVER. Some of my friends moved back just because they love New Orleans too much to ever live anywhere else, some of them out of stubbornness, and because they just refused to give up, and some moved back out of sheer necessity. Many have left and vow never to go back again.
When I was in New Orleans in November, I took hundreds of photos with my cheap little sony point and shoot digital, and I visited every friend and family member that I could find. I will cherish those photos, moments and memories forever......it was a time during which we shared our deepest hopes and fears, a sense of mourning and uncertainty, and an overwhelming sense of being lucky to be alive and have each other.
I want to go back to New Orleans and document the city, its people, and its infrastructure. I want to show how it's grown, changed, succeeded and failed after Katrina. I want to document the people's will to survive and rebuild, and I want to show the world just how they've done it. I want to show what makes people in New Orleans happy, sad, content and angry....I want to re-visit the landmarks that have disappeared and remember them as they were. I want to show what was truly lost while showing how the people will fill the voids by providing what could be....
In addition, I would like to go across the country visiting friends and family who have been displaced and show what their lives are like in their new hometowns. I want to know who loves New Orleans, who hates New Orleans, and who's indifferent. I want to know who's glad to have left and who yearns to go back. I want to show how much of a change people were forced to make.
I suppose I could have written an essay about how I've always wanted to travel the length of Italy, visiting every ancient city and photographing every inch down to Sicily. I could have chosen spectacular locales such as the Amazon rain forest, the Sierras, the Australian outback, or the African Serengeti as my dream assignment to photograph. However, these are places that will always be and have been visited and photographed by so many before me. When I thought long and hard about it I realized that I truly had three loves in my life: my family, my friends, and the city of New Orleans, for better or for worse. I would be a liar and a cheat if I said that those weren't the most important things in my life, and I can't think of anything that I'd rather immerse myself in. I want to go home.....I want to document the real experience that is New Orleans, and I want to show the world how it will survive, persist, and continue to be....
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans then and now: Katrina's legacy five years later
I want to document the current state of New Orleans and the areas of the south affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as the survivors across the US and how they've coped, succeeded, failed, and triumphed in the years since 8/29/2005.
I was born and raised in New Orleans and I love the city with its history, culture, food, and laissez-faire attitude. In my heart I will always be a New Orleanian, however, in 2005 I decided to leave the city, tired of the crime, corruption, and lack of progress. Little did I know that this would be a decision which would weigh more heavily than I ever could have expected. Looking for a new life, I moved to Las Vegas on April 29th, 2005 after living in New Orleans for almost 35 years. Four months later to the day, hurricane Katrina hit and my girlfriend and I watched in stunned amazement as our former home became national news and legendary tragedy. Her parents were trapped in the Popeye's Diversified Foods warehouse for seven days and had to be rescued by boat. My girlfriend and I still had New Orleans area cell phone numbers and our phones would not work, as was the case with about 75% of the rest of the New Orleans population. We only found out that her parents were OK when they were able to send a text message to a friend in Colorado, who in turn called us to let us know they were ok. I had postings listed on Craig's list asking where lost friends and family had gone. I received messages from all over the country from friends and relatives of friends and relatives who gave me their status, which I faithfully updated daily on my posting. The news was awash with stories of the deaths, suicides, damage, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced, confused, lost and without any money or place to stay, and total uncertainty about what the future held in store for them. Many of my friends instantly became unemployed and homeless, not to mention having lost all contact with friends and loved ones, and not really knowing the full extent of the damage...not to mention watching their hometown being completely ripped apart. Through all of this, my girlfriend and I suffered for our loved ones, unable to help.
In November of that year, finally able to afford to travel, my girlfriend and I drove back to New Orleans to visit friends and family, celebrate Thanksgiving, and, of course, to see for ourselves. What I witnessed was truly shocking: damage as far as the eye could see, 100 year old Oaks blown to bits, entire blocks abandoned, houses shifted off of their foundations, cars stacked three high and on top of houses, the familiar "X's" marking each house, some with numbers to indicate how many were found dead inside. In a strange way, I was so fascinated by the sheer enormity of it all that I remained strangely detached. I did not have a childhood home in New Orleans and I moved away willingly. It was not until we visited my girlfriend's house and I watched her sob uncontrollably when she finally saw her own home and the extent of the damage and came to terms that all of her childhood memories were gone. At that point I became truly heartbroken. Soon after that I saw the homes of my friends which had been completely submerged and I was confronted with watching people look at their entire lives after they had been turned upside down and flushed away. Yearbooks, photos, wedding albums, keepsakes damaged, drowned, destroyed. It was at this point that the true enormity of the situation became real and I came to understand the psychological burden that so many had been forced to shoulder in an instant. No one in New Orleans ever really took hurricanes seriously....we used to go out to the bars or have parties. If you did leave town you took a few bucks and a change of clothes and treated it like a short vacation. How could you know that the clothes on your back would be the only thing you would own three days later??
All of my friends and family ended up in cities all over the country...unwilling new residents. Some of them went back to rebuild...some of them stayed where they were and accepted charitable donations and set out looking for jobs...some of them called moms, dads, aunts and uncles and moved to D.C., Atlanta, Boston, L.A..... WHEREVER. Some of my friends moved back just because they love New Orleans too much to ever live anywhere else, some of them out of stubbornness, and because they just refused to give up, and some moved back out of sheer necessity. Many have left and vow never to go back again.
When I was in New Orleans in November, I took hundreds of photos with my cheap little sony point and shoot digital, and I visited every friend and family member that I could find. I will cherish those photos, moments and memories forever......it was a time during which we shared our deepest hopes and fears, a sense of mourning and uncertainty, and an overwhelming sense of being lucky to be alive and have each other.
I want to go back to New Orleans and document the city, its people, and its infrastructure. I want to show how it's grown, changed, succeeded and failed after Katrina. I want to document the people's will to survive and rebuild, and I want to show the world just how they've done it. I want to show what makes people in New Orleans happy, sad, content and angry....I want to re-visit the landmarks that have disappeared and remember them as they were. I want to show what was truly lost while showing how the people will fill the voids by providing what could be....
In addition, I would like to go across the country visiting friends and family who have been displaced and show what their lives are like in their new hometowns. I want to know who loves New Orleans, who hates New Orleans, and who's indifferent. I want to know who's glad to have left and who yearns to go back. I want to show how much of a change people were forced to make.
I suppose I could have written an essay about how I've always wanted to travel the length of Italy, visiting every ancient city and photographing every inch down to Sicily. I could have chosen spectacular locales such as the Amazon rain forest, the Sierras, the Australian outback, or the African Serengeti as my dream assignment to photograph. However, these are places that will always be and have been visited and photographed by so many before me. When I thought long and hard about it I realized that I truly had three loves in my life: my family, my friends, and the city of New Orleans, for better or for worse. I would be a liar and a cheat if I said that those weren't the most important things in my life, and I can't think of anything that I'd rather immerse myself in. I want to go home.....I want to document the real experience that is New Orleans, and I want to show the world how it will survive, persist, and continue to be....
