Katharine Hepburn on surviving the “Long Island Express” hurricane: “My God. It was something devastating—and unreal—like the beginning of the world—or the end of it—and I slogged and sloshed, crawled through ditches and hung on to keep going somehow—got drenched and bruised and scratched—completely bedraggled—finally got to where there was a working phone and called Dad.”
Photo and text via http://blackandwtf.tumblr.com/page/4.
A passerby holds on to a tree for support as hurricane swept waves hammer the sea wall adjacent to the Belt Parkway near 72nd Street in Brooklyn. The New York area and the New Jersey coastline were battered by Hurricane Carol as heavy rains and fierce winds disrupted power lines, felled trees and tangled air and highway traffic.
Photo and text via http://blackandwtf.tumblr.com/page/4.
A man stands next to what was the front wall of his waterfront home. The wall was ripped away when the force of the storm surge associated with Hurricane Katrina slammed a two-ton refrigerated container into the structure. Eight of his neighbors’ houses were also smashed by the floating two-ton home wrecker. Photograph by Adrian Overstreet, age 13.
Photo and text via http://www.portersvillerevivalgroup.org.
Thoughts:
*The historical interest in images of people in the context of natural disasters, hurricanes here in particular. Why are images of people in hurricanes taken/important? How are they used?
*The problem of intervention, or lack thereof. How do we deal with the image of the man hanging onto the tree? What was the gaze of the photographer before, during, and after he took this photo? What is the significance of the image of Katherine Hepburn, a famous actress, relaxing in a tub among the hurricane rubble?
*"Truth" in photography. Are these images accurate representations of the disasters? Of the people? What is the difference between the staged and unstaged shots?
*Photography as anesthetic; how do these images protect the viewer from the disaster and empower the viewer with the knowledge of it at the same time?
*"Art" photography vs. photojournalism. Are these images the creative expressions of the photographer or objective photojournalism?
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