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Charles Webb · Mar 3, 2006

To all,
If you havn't checked out todays "Gallery" I would recommend that you take a good look at the images uploaded by "Sportera". They are among some of the best photographs I have seen concerning the aftermath of "Katerina"

My first thoughts were "That could be my house" very moving, take a look, I don't think you will be sorry! Very remarkable images, thank you Sportera!

Charlie...............................

roteague · Mar 3, 2006

Thanks Charlie,

I was looking at these images this morning, at about 1am, as we were getting hammered by a major rainstorm - third day of severe flooding in a row. Not up to Katrina levels, but the images were quite appropriate given the circumstances. All, I could think about at the time was "perhaps, I should move back to Arizona!".

david b · Mar 3, 2006

I had the pleasure of meeting Sam in NOLA and he is a great guy as well as an amazing photographer. Make sure to check out his website.

ggriffi · Mar 3, 2006

Charles Webb said:
To all,
If you havn't checked out todays "Gallery" I would recommend that you take a good look at the images uploaded by "Sportera". They are among some of the best photographs I have seen concerning the aftermath of "Katerina"

My first thoughts were "That could be my house" very moving, take a look, I don't think you will be sorry! Very remarkable images, thank you Sportera!

Charlie...............................

Charlie,

You are so right. These images are very powerful to me. I don't remember who said it, in response to one of the shots "there is a book in the pictures". I wholeheartedly agree. Very well done, Sportera

g

Bill Hahn · Mar 3, 2006

Thanks Charles for pointing these out...

sajianphotos · Mar 3, 2006

Oh man...these are true "imaging". They go right from the eyes to the heart. Super!

Sportera · Mar 4, 2006

Thank you

Thank you for the comments. I hope that these photographs help keep the Katrina disaster in the forefront.

I do wish to see a book born of this project, I still have so much to cover and I don't want this to be one of those rush to press projects that scratch the surface and do not delve deeper into the issue.

Thank you again.

Sanjay Sen · Mar 4, 2006

Sam,
I have been looking at your work and it is amazing. It is also quite saddening to note that after so many months, almost nothing has been done to cleanup these places after Katrina's devastation. As you said, I hope these photographs help to keep the disaster in the forefront. To that end, I say more power to you and others who are doing this.

Great work, and please keep it up.

Best.

vet173 · Mar 4, 2006

They will get ther when they get done cleaning up the areas with 4 car garages.

Sportera · Mar 4, 2006

Actually its everyone suffering from lack of direction, several of these images were taken in a "4 car garage" community. The two that I am posting today are from a very wealthy area. My home was is a predominatley white area and our houses still look the same. Its not a black white thing, really it isn't. Its a ineffective governement thing coupled with a fema is a joke thing.

SuzanneR · Mar 4, 2006

Sportera said:
Thank you for the comments. I hope that these photographs help keep the Katrina disaster in the forefront.

I do wish to see a book born of this project, I still have so much to cover and I don't want this to be one of those rush to press projects that scratch the surface and do not delve deeper into the issue.

Thank you again.

The photographs are really powerful, and you should take your time. It will prove to be an important body of work. I'd be inclined to take a full year to photograph it with the 4x5. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, changes there will be in another 5 or 6 months.

Clearly, the clean up has not been rushed... so don't rush your own work. It's important to keep your comittment to it, and as you say, really delve deeply into it.

Best wishes.

Curt · Mar 4, 2006

It's a Ray thing. It's an indifference thing. It's a Bush is all about war thing. It's a failure to upgrade infrastructure thing. With Bush we have reached the narrow part of the funnel. Maybe when the UAE's move in and take over the NO port everything will be all right again.

In WWII my dad was in the Pacific and the Red Cross had an auction for some cakes. One member of my dads unit, Frank, saw a cake and said he would definitely bid on it because it looked like one of the cakes his mother made all the time.

He won the cake and shared it with the rest of the group. When they were finished they discovered a letter under the cake. It said "Frank I hope you enjoy the cake, mom."

Frank won the bid and enjoyed the cake but never donated to the Red Cross again.

pentaxuser · Mar 4, 2006

ggriffi said:
Charlie,

You are so right. These images are very powerful to me. I don't remember who said it, in response to one of the shots "there is a book in the pictures". I wholeheartedly agree. Very well done, Sportera

g

It was me. It's clear that Sportera is actually involved in recording history here. Hopefully nothing bigger than this disaster will ever hit New Orleans ever again. If there are few, if any, others recording these scenes then what he is doing is unique. Even if there are others then the chances are that none are doing it in B&W.

In photojournalism B&W is still a unique medium for its ability to capture the scene. I went to an outdoor exhibition by the South Bank of the Thames in London.a couple of years ago. It was of shots taken in various trouble spots such as Bosnia. There must have been a couple of hundred people viewing the shots and yet total silence prevailed, such was the power of photographs taken of true disasters, man-made or otherwise.

We now live in a world where we are encouraged to have the attention span of a gnat, to question and dwell on nothing and quickly move on.

Sportera. Keep shooting and remind those people ,whose agenda it is to profit from shortening our attention span and limit our ability to ask questions, that they have chosen the wrong species to work on.

pentaxuser

david b · Mar 4, 2006

Sam, would you mind if I started to post some images from the L9W?

david b · Mar 4, 2006

I went ahead and added a few images to the standard gallery.

Sportera · Mar 4, 2006

No David, please post all that you can, All I care about is the message getting out and staying alive.

david b · Mar 4, 2006

What do you mean Sam? Isn't New Orleans all fixed and back to normal?

Sportera · Mar 5, 2006

Oh yeah we have everything working again, just no New Orleanians. For some reason they won't come home.

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