John Rosenthal and the Ninth Ward

Take a moment and experience the Ninth Ward through the eyes and camera of John Rosenthal.

"I wanted the photographs to say “See, this was here, and that was there.” For a photographer, that seemed a simple enough and legitimate task. After all, the moment we allow ourselves to forget the intimate details of a Somewhere, Donald Trump and his ilk, waiting in the wings, will happily make an entrance and build us a new and improved Nowhere—monolithic, impersonal, luxurious, and white." John Rosenthal on photographing the Ninth Ward.

See what was here, and what was there - go look.

I was powerfully moved by some of these shots, especially Church of Living God2, which made me weep. I'm wide open right now, doing the depth journaling exercises of Ira Progoff in an attempt to break up the hardened ground of my emotions, and this photo pierced me. Tears are a good idea - they help free my own deeper reasons to grieve as I deal belatedly with the onset of my Dad's cancer - the shock and fear catching me only now, months later, when I finally quit running because my family called me to stop the damage.

I've written less emotionally about John Rosenthal's photographs before, here.