a while ago i featured the photography of chris jordan. at that time i was particularly drawn to his gallery of images entitled “intolerable beauty: portraits of american mass consumption.”
i recently returned to see what else chris has been doing and came across his powerful photo gallery of images of the devastation that accompanied hurricane katrina this was a well-documented event from the earliest warnings of the imminent arrival of katrina, through its landing and then the human nightmare and unfolding crisis of post katrina new orleans.
jordan’s photographs reinforce the incredible destruction both material and spiritual that took place and underscore the continuing sorrow and loss that has resulted from what on the face of things was a truly powerful natural disaster but which (as time has revealed) was also a human disaster both in cause and consequence.
jordan’s images capture intimacies that cause the viewer to be immersed in the tragedy and yet, you will not see one person in any of the pictures. it is the more powerful depiction of objects, of simple treasures damaged and forgotten, that reaches beyond the lens and through the screen to draw the viewer to reflect on their own fortune and fragility in the face of nature.
the double entendre of the gallery’s title should not be lost. visit chris jordan’s website and scroll down to “in katrina’s wake: portraits of loss from an unnatural disaster”.
2 comments:
Wow, I just stumbled across your blog by accident. What anguish a person feels when faced with these pictures. The longing to clean up the garbage, wanting to make the book readable and have value again....man that is very thought provocing.
hey thanks for your comments heidi. the magnitude of this disaster in human terms is simply staggering. it's the sum of all the tiny pieces of the destruction that i find most challenging to comprehend.
the image that evoked the deepest response for me was the expanse of dried, cracked mud filling a living room. reflecting on the infinite range of tiny intimacies that a living room - such a mundane space - contains, and that it could then so utterly desecrated, is really humbling.
steven
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