Photographing The Ninth Ward

[waiting for hope]

John Rosenthal
Posted April 8, 2008

I drove into the Ninth Ward a year and a half after Katrina left it in ruins. Friends of mine who had already been there told me the devastation was "unbelievable." I wondered what that meant -- unbelievable.

My friends were wrong.

The Ninth Ward, in its ruin, was believable, but only in the way certain dreams are believable -- post-World-War-III dreams. Miles and miles of empty houses. No voices, no cars -- an eerie silence except for the distant rumble of dump trucks, the occasional crunching of wood. Now and then a darkened limo, or a Katrina tour bus, would drive through. The initial documentary Gold Rush -- photography inspired by overturned houses, cars in trees, and mountains of debris -- was plainly over. Dramatic spectacle had given way to pervasive loss -- a condition far less tangible, and difficult to photograph. I'm not sure what I felt about what I saw. Disbelief? To be honest, I wasn't able to grasp the disaster. It was too large to be emotionally comprehended, especially by someone who doesn't live there.


~Snip~

The Ninth Ward was disappearing, it seemed to me, not only because of Katrina, but because of a long-standing indifference to the poor, an indifference now transforming itself into a mercilessly strategic land-grab.

Photographs, though, not only remember, they register surprise. And what surprised me most about the Ninth Ward were the left-over particulars of a multi-layered human geography. What did I expect to find there? The media invariably headline poverty and crime, but those words, chanted like a mantra, don't reveal or illuminate anything; they merely divert us from the deeper problem of American racism. In fact what I found and what I photographed wasn't simply the remnants of a dilapidated and dangerous neighborhood now demolished by a hurricane, but the vestiges of a working-class community in which aspiration contended with scarcity, and where religious faith found expression on every block. From my perspective, the floodwaters had washed away not only bricks and mortar, but also the toxic stereotypes that separate us from each other. What was left, in other words, was the vanishing common ground, and it is this familiar terrain that I have photographed.

More Photos @
www.johnrosenthal.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-l-rosenthal/photographing-the-ninth-w_b_95741.html

I was in New Orleans Easter of 2006 - Journaled Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x987192

My pictures from the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39453333@N00/sets/72157604453932668/

The shame this country will bear concerning the Gulf Coast will never end as long as the indifference continues.

[mentalsolstice]

1. Been twice since Dec.

To bury my FiL and take care of other arrangements. Since it's my husband's hometown, we drove around instead of sticking to the touristy parts as so many do. There are miles and miles of the city that look much like I imagine Europe or Japan looked after WWII.

[waiting for hope]

7. Our drive through Lakeview and the

Ninth Ward was so eerie - you could see a dark line toward the tops of some of the two story homes where the water came up and sat for a while - the expression was bathtub rings. My husband was born and raised there, my son was born there and I lived there for almost 14 years, after that drive, we both cried and cried. Never imagined our former home looking as it did.

[KamaAina]

8. So where's our Marshall Plan?

There are miles and miles of the city that look much like I imagine Europe or Japan looked after WWII.

Indeed. And who do you suppose rebuilt all those miles, particularly in Europe? We did, under the Marshall Plan.

So where's our Marshall Plan? Even our Dem candidates haven't exactly made it a front-burner issue.

[mentalsolstice]

16. Seeing the Nat'l Guard codes...

still painted on the front of houses haunts me to this day. After Katrina, my husband wouldn't go. But seeing NOLA and burying my FiL down there...I've been really freaked since Dec.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Nice pictures of the FEMA trailers.

[raccoon]

3. K&R. Come on DUers, let's get this on Greatest!

Great pictures, Thanks.

[JackDragna]

4. I live in Louisiana, and I'm glad people still care.

At times, I feel like the state has been abandoned by the entire country. Nobody cares anymore. We're just poor folk in flyover country, not worth spending a dime on, a blip in the radar of people's lives. I'm glad someone out there still cares enough to take these pictures and show the world what carelessness, indifference and scorn have wrought.

[waiting for hope]

10. I still care - and it just burns me

that so many people are still overlooking it, one of those situations of "It doesn't effect me, why bother?" The level of apathy that exists in this country is appalling.

[Quantess]

27. Iraq is seen as much more important.

I wonder how that makes Louisianans who voted for Bush feel.

[AtomicKitten]

5. We must make it right.

thanks for this :)

[progressoid]

6. Sorry

I don't think that N O will ever return to even a fraction of it's former self. The reality is the damage by Katrina, the ineptitude of the government and the indifference of the American people have crippled it permanently.

[isuba]

12. The phoenix will rise from the ashes

Please, please try to be optimistic. See the history of Hurricane Betsy, which left NOLA in similar shape as Katrina. Betsy was the reason many people had axes in their attics when Katrina hit, they knew the floods would come and they would have to chop their way out onto the rooftops.

We, the people of Louisiana, will not let NOLA disappear despite the apathy shown it by most of America. Every time someone says they don't think NOLA will return, they are insulting me, my neighbors and their strength and the conviction to continue to rebuild and recover. The fact is that this country needs New Orleans to survive as much as we need the country's help to do it, if not more so.

There is a sense of togetherness here that was born out of the disaster, natural then man made, a sense of unity you feel when talking to people around the area. Maybe it's just me, or I'm naive or idealistic, but I feel it and see it and live it everyday.

These pictures are but a tiny fraction of the scope of what the devastation looks like and why it is a testament to our resilience for continuing to fight for our home. It's something that you cannot fully comprehend unless you see it firsthand, all of it.

[reggie the dog]

9. sad to say

but the only way o get the feds into the ninth ward would be to plant cannabis seeds everywhere this spring, they would be there by the hundreds.

[KharmaTrain]

11. I Just Took A Lot For Myself

I was in the Ninth Ward and around the city a couple weeks ago. It's a mixed bag...and a lot has to do with location, location, location. The Lakeview area has begun to rebuild in earnest...still a lot of FEMA trailers and it's not unusual to see a new pre-fab house that just went up, next to a still deserted wreck next to one that's starting construction. Many of the people I talked to were glad to be home but it's been at a price...higher rents, still pending struggles with insurance companies and FEMA and a city government that always has its hand out. Many have just taken it upon themselves to rebuild...if they have the resources.

Yes, the Ninth is a humanitarian disaster...a silent one that is a national disgrace. We took a side street and saw nothing but empty lots and "tear-downs"...like nothing has occured since the initial clear-out. The words of Gym Teach Hastert played in my head about them just bulldozing the place. Sure looks like that happened.

I did see a few sections where groups like Habitat and others were putting up houses, but they estimate at least 150,000 people remain without homes and many areas can't be rebuilt due to legal hassles over land ownership. When I was there, I saw a news report about a near riot at an apartment complex...dozens of people lining up to try to get one of the few apartments...and that's another major problem. Those who rented didn't get trailers (maybe that's a good thing) and they have been preyed upon with sky high rents and being kicked out and moved around at a whim.

The one thing that you definitely pick up on, and that's the resillient spirit of many New Orleans. There's even a bit of pride that they're rebuilding despite this regime and FEMA...but it's been at a price and one many are still paying. It's also a lesson to the rest of us how vulnerable we are if a catastrophe hits our areas...especially while the boooosh cabal in fleecing our treasury.

[aikoaiko]

13. eminent domain and bulldozers -- its sad, but that the future of the 9th ward

[malaise]

14. Thanks for these

I don't plan to forget NOLA. :cry:

[Cresent City Kid]

15. Great pictures

I have only been back to New Orleans once since the storm. It was for my father's funeral, so I didn't have time or inclination to tour the city.

Developers must be drooling over this large section of uninhabited land, minutes from downtown, and close to the Mississippi River. When I lived in New Orleans, you couldn't fit a regular sized Wal-Mart in the city, legally or physically. Now they have room to build one right on the river so Chinese products can go straight from the ship to the shelves. Some entity with more money than the local homeowners will take advantage of the situation.

[lonestarnot]

17. K & R

[Swamp Rat]

18. going there tomorrow

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

19. To the 9th Ward?

I wish I could go help.

[Swamp Rat]

20. Yes...

Thanks. I wish more people could help.

Unfortunately, the ones who want to help cannot, and the ones who are able to help do not.

Sometimes it seems like we're pissin' in the wind here.

[lonestarnot]

22. I'm sorry Swampie

:hug: :cry:

[uppityperson]

21. k&r, it's going on 2 yrs since I was able to go.

I was there last about the same time you were, spring 2006.
My pictures:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/jlaskey/photos%20March%20April%202006/
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/jlaskey/Katrina%20relief%20March-April%202006/

[garthranzz]

23. I live in New Orleans, my parents lost their home...

They lived in New Orleans East - upper ninth ward. My father's a WWII vet who had mid-stage Alzheimer's. The forced travels after Katrina put him over the edge. He's in a VA hospital in NJ. The pictures I have of their house are probably too dark to post. Here's some word pictures: a solid oak table in the dining room can't be found - until you look on the floor and see paper. A freezer, packed full, at a 45 degree angle blocks access to the garage. A refrigerator lies on its side - you have to climb over it to get in or out of the kitchen. A living room couch is twenty feet down the hall. That's just the start.

All I could save of their house were some family pictures I put in the attic the night before.

I live uptown, near Tulane University. The infrastructure is in ruins. Utility prices have gone up. If you can get homeowner's insurance, it'll double your cost or half the value of your home. I can't point you to a half-a-dozen books about life here.

The levees still aren't fixed. The Dutch laugh at us. It will take $30 billion dollars to fix them - one month in Iraq.

Without family, friends and a community, we would be impoverished. Many of those in the 9th Ward owned their homes - the working poor. But the middle class, the professionals and small business owners are leaving - or not coming back - because they can't make a living here and it's easier and safer elsewhere.

But share the blame. People here - see the joke of a mayor and some members of the city council - are mired in their turfs and their race wars. As Obama noted, the racial ignorance and greed cuts both ways. Bush/Nixon's race war works only because Blacks and Whites buy into it.

It's too early in the morning for this.

People ask why don't we just leave? I've written several poems about New Orleans and its recovery. Here's the end of one of them...

Oh, ask again why I stay,
why not return, move on, at least recast:
I said the memories I said are vast
and one there is a part that will not play.

[NOLALady]

24. NOLA City Council...

From what I've seen of them, they all seem to be on the same side. None seem to be on the side of the average New Orleanian. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there seems to be a disconnect.

Would you mind sharing one of your poems about New Orleans?

How are your parents?



:hug:

[garthranzz]

25. NOLA City Council

Arnie Fielkow is on the side of the average New Orleanian. He is a man of integrity and a good guy. He's working hard, and at personal sacrifice, to make a difference here.

[Maestro]

26. We bail out Wall Street and spend trillions in Iraq

but can't rebuild NOLA and the Ninth Ward. Effin' ridiculous! My dad's side of the family is from LA and I lived in Slidell for three years as a child. This disgusts me!

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. 1926 Brother, most folks don't remember either

but as a nation, we've been there, and done that...