3/27/08

Day Four - March 27, 2008

Schedule: 6:45-group meets in lobby
7:00-Photograph Rebuilding New Orleans Organization
11:00-Ate at Mother's (good food)
2:00-Critique

3:30-Algiers neighborhood
8:00-order pizza and edit photos

Reactions: This morning we woke up early and met a man named Jon, who is with the organization Rebuilding New Orleans. He walked us through three neighborhoods and their warehouse. The first person we met was Sidney, who's house is located in the Holy Cross neighborhood. The construction on his house is soon to be finished and he will be living in it soon! Our second location was in the upper 9th ward. We did not meet the home owners, but we did meet the volunteers who were helping to tear down the damaged house. The third house was owned by Miss Gibbs; she had just moved into her new home the day before we visited her. This women welcomed 15 strangers into her home! She may be one of the strongest women i may ever meet while I was there; she had lost everything two and half years ago and she was thankful for what she had. She was left with no family and without a crack in her voice she left us her thoughts; to take it one day a time. Miss Gibbs taught us all something that day; I guarantee we all walked away with a fond memory of a sweet old lady who through diversity refused to be brought down.











3/26/08

Day Three - March 26, 2008

Schedule: 6:45-Group meets on lobby
7:00-Photograph Habitat for Humanity
12:30-back at hotel

2:30-critique
4:30-street car
5:00-cemetery

6:45-7:15-wait for street car!
10:45-Sleep Time!!!

Reaction: It was a early morning, we started in a neighborhood of the upper 9th ward where the Habitat for Humanity was building houses for local musicians. We started early enough to get the morning light. I spent much of the day photographing brightly colored houses and the construction of those
houses. I was given a chance to run around almost on my own and work on images. I found the images that I like best were the ones when "the moment" showed up unexpectedly while I was setting up for another shot.














Late afternoon we then grabbed a street car and headed towards the Greenwood cemetery along Canal Street. We were informed that the cemetery may be closed, but we ran into a woman who guided us to a opening in the fence. We shot there for just over an hour and then preceded to get another street car back. I am beginning to notice a trend in the transportation system here; it makes me appreciate the system in Minneapolis to say the least. We wait for a half hour for a street car to come by; the kicker of it all is that for the whole half hour we could see the street car, but had to wait until it came towards us. The whole experience in general was humorous.





Day Two - March 25, 2008

Schedule: 8:30-group meets in lobby
9:00-photograph Holy Cross (9th ward)
12:30-visit the Ogden Museum
3:30-Photograph French Quarters (major tourist trap!!!)

8:15-group edit session
11:30-bed time


Reactions: This was the first day i had a chance to get hands on with the environment that I was exposed to on Monday. The first place we visited was known as a the Holy Cross witch is located in the 9th ward and near the leeves. During our three hour photograph session my group ran into a woman that introduced herself as Shelia; in turn she introduced us to a woman, Miss Stacey, who was willing to walk us through her house and give us a background on the long history of Holy Cross. Miss Stacey loves the neighborhood for it's multicultural, multidiverse, and it's multiclass. She gave us a tour of her currently renovated house that was damaged by the floods and Katrina; she is living in a FEMA trailer until the renovations are completed. A photograph of her house is shown below. As far as the neighborhood as a whole, some have returned to their homes and others have not; some may never return at all. Walking from house to house, you can tell which are lived in are are not.








The second area we photographed that day was the French Quarters (Bourbon St. is located there). I quickly realized that it was a huge tourist trap. There was a extensive amount of people who hassled us for money or information on what we were up to. I had one friend get hit one by "The Ballon Man" and many in the editorial group were harassed for taking pictures. I did get one prize possision while spending the evening in the french quarters; it is the image shown below. By the way dad, this was the photo I was taking when you called me that night! ;-)



Day One - March 24,2008


Schedule: 4:00 arrive at Minneapolis Airport.

6:00 take off towards Texas

8:20ish arrive at the Texas airport

10:00 flight takes off towards New Orleans

11:20 Flight arrives in New Orleans

12:00 Check into hotel

2:30 Tour to damaged areas

7:00 Supper

9:05-10:01 waited for a bus to take us back to the hotel!!!

Reaction:
March 24th was an exhausting day! I can honestly say that I would have been content checking into the hotel room and then sleeping the afternoon away, but I did not. Instead we took a tour around the city. Despite my deep desire to stare at my eyelids for hours I did realize it was an important part of the trip. It was our first true introduction to the city and it opened our eyes to what was and wasn’t there. I had heard all the stories that the population was currently about half of what it was the pre Katrina days, but I guess I had to see it with my own eyes truly understand what that meant. It could possibly be described as a checkerboard affect. In neighborhoods we were shown; some houses were fixed up and lived in and other houses seemed almost untouched from a few years back. Even the businesses were the same way. There were vacant storefronts, vacant lots, and vacant houses. It was a reality check. It was a storm that affected everyone no matter who you were and what you did for a living; it goes to show that you can never predict the future and must be thankful for what you are given.