[Leica] the lower 9th ward... etc

[kididdoc at cox.net (Steve Barbour)]

On Jan 23, 2006, at 5:16 PM, Jeffery Smith wrote:
> Hi Lee,
> Quite a bit of the city still has non-functioning traffic lights  
> (they just
> flash red off and on). I'm not going back into the lower 9th ward  
> without
> knee boots. I tried hopping over mud in sneakers, and it is so  
> slick and
> slimy, I just about fell on my butt several times.

>

> I've driven down twice to New Orleans with camera in hand, and I  
> can tell
> you there's a barrier to documenting what I saw.


the world is unaware of all this (see above and below... )  . People  
are out there taking photos in Iraq and Niger, and many other God  
forsaken places... so forget the mud.... and get out there and get  
some quality photos...

I believe you are missing the chance of a lifetime...

Steve


>   I went to medical school
> in New Orleans, and I know the city intimately.  I exited the  
> expressway at
> Loyola and into downtown and went through three intersections before I
> realized the traffic lights had no power (this in November).  Stop  
> signs had
> been torn off their poles and nailed to saw horses and put in the
> intersections to notify this was a four way stop.  The busiest  
> intersection
> I remember in New Orleans (Canal St. and Claiborne Ave.) had no  
> traffic
> lights, but it didn't matter.  There was a four way stop, but  
> absolutely no
> traffic (the Saturday following Thanksgiving).
>     I went first down into the French Quarter to see if A Gallery  
> for Fine
> Photography was still open.  It was; just the owner, though.  No  
> employees.
> A sign said "Open Fridays through Mondays, and some other days."   
> Afterwards
> I drove out Canal St. and into the Mid-City area where I used to  
> deliver the
> mail when I was working my way through school.  Four hundred yards  
> from the
> French Quarter (which looked almost undisturbed except for the  
> trash that
> there weren't enough workers to pick up) there was nothing--rien.   
> Just
> homes with water lines on them and spray paint to indicate there  
> were or
> were not dogs there, or cats, and mounds of debris piled everywhere  
> as high
> as the houses.  The doors swung open and the windows, too; there  
> wasn't
> anything worth taking.  For mile after mile after mile it was all the
> same--no one.  Cars ruined by the flood were everywhere--it's said  
> there're
> 350,000 of them.
>     I took pictures in the French Quarter because it looked like it  
> always
> did, just without people.  But out Canal the thought of taking a  
> picture
> simply didn't occur to me.  It was too awful.  I don't care what  
> you've seen
> on TV, it's worse--16 times worse.  Finally I got out to the  
> cemeteries at
> the end of Canal St. and things looked again like they used to.   
> It's an
> attractive spot for artistic photographers.  So I started shooting  
> some
> more; it's just that the grass was all dead and the flowers left in  
> August
> were all wilted.
>     That was my first visit.  I went back a few weeks ago, and this  
> time I
> was able to take some pictures in the devasted areas.  But I can  
> tell you
> there's a barrier to taking them.  It takes time to overcome.   
> Maybe I can
> put some up in the PAWs.
>
> Lee England
> Natchez, Mississippi
>
>
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