Re: Off-Topic, New Orleans Images

Neat, Dan!
Thanks for the "5x the size of Manhattan" fact. I have been showing a
powerpoint of my New Orleans images to classes and trying to explain the
amount of destruction, and all I could come up with was it would be like
taking the city of Minneapolis and razing it to the ground, and having
330,000 of the inhabitants leave and not come back, AND then expect the
government to come in and clean it all up in 1 year...

I have printed 10, so far, in large platinums and will make a body of work
for a show somewhere (? any takers?) in this and tricolor gum. I have been a
bit slowed down with the death of my Epson 2200 printer and the need to
purchase the 2400.

At times the irony or humor was just too much. For instance, there was one
church with a Last Supper painting lying on the ground next to a pile of
muddy dishes. Another place I photographed had a street sign of
"Abundance". That is probably my favorite image I took...and if my website
is ever finished I could post all.

My reason for producing a body of work in pt/pd and gum is that they will be
as archival a photograph as one can get, and I think it is important to
preserve the sight of this type of destruction, just as the sight of the San
Francisco fire 100 years ago may be preserved (but not enough) for us today.
Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Burkholder" <fdanb@aol.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-L@usask.ca>
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 9:55 PM
Subject: Off-Topic, New Orleans Images

Sorry that this probably has nothing to do with alt-photo (unless I do a
few in pigment-over-platinum) but I wanted to share this first group of
images from the trip to New Orleans that Jill and I made earlier this week.

In most of the places we photographed, the high water line was at eye
level or higher. The "slime line" is often more visible but is lower
than the high water line because the chemical sludge didn't move in
until a few days later when the water level had started to drop. I've
never before seen anything like this. Dick Cheney should be forced to
quail hunt in the 9th Ward.

There were so many ironies slapping us in the face as we walked through
homes that were washed from their foundations. I'm especially intrigued
by the living room with the fish tank. Can you imagine what a freak-out
it would be for the fish to see the water level OUTSIDE their tank rising?

These are not literal captures of the scenes. I was trying to find
design and beauty to contrast with the human suffering and material
devastation:

www.danburkholder.com/new_orleans

There are a few clich destruction shots up at the following:

www.danburkholder.com/katrina

It's somewhat amazing that after seven months there are still piles of
destroyed cars and trash. And not to sermonize, but some may not realize
that the destruction covers an area approximately five times as large as
Manhattan.

More to come soon.

Dan

-- 
www.DanBurkholder.com
www.TinyTutorials.com