September 10, 2005
Riveting NOLA photojournal.
These are sad/beautiful/awe-inspiring/ugly.
They're taken by a Nicaraguan hotel worker in the French Quarter and they describe the disaster all the way from the storm preparation measures, the hurricane itself, the aftermath and initial optimism to the flooding, social breakdown and evacuation.
If you've ever been to the French Quarter, you'll recognize the streets in the photos.
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Oh yes, how did he get out? That's a story in itself. He and a friend were told to go to the conference center. He did and saw the masses of people stranded there. He ended up jacking a truck and driving out. Man.
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I might have done the same thing in his situation, but I don't think I'd have documented it. I hope he doesn't catch any grief for it.
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All comments aside about how he got out, that photojournal has really captured for me the alarming rate that the water rose in downtown Nola like no written report has. Absolutely jawdropping and terrifying. Thanks for the link, StoryBored.
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The water looked so clear then. I bet it doesn't anymore.
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I'm tired of all this. Beautiful, sad pictures, because I'll never get to visit New Orleans. So what's it going to cost future generations? The pictures are a spectacular paeon to a dead city. The people have dispersed.
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The photos also throw some light on the whole issue of violence/looting etc... He was right there when the Foot Locker(?) store was looted. The photos show the police standing by and letting it happen. In this case, the cops weren't going to get involved as long as no-one was getting violent. After finishing the looting, someone apparently *torched* the store. That was just criminal. The photos then show some very dedicated firemen who try to fight the fire even without full water pressure from the hydrants...my hat goes off to those firefighters.
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That was just criminal No snark: but I've wondered if there is a term to describe the device of employing a common metaphorical saying to circumstances in which the metaphorical meaning could be replaced by the actual meaning, e.g. the above, or (long winded example) saying that the positional advantage of one football team over another due to the state of the pitch should be ameliorated to create "a level playing field". Sometimes we frame this talk by noting that we are using a phrase literally rather than metaphorically, but what would describe the case where a person clearly intends a metaphorical usage but forgets that the usage is, in the specific case, literal? If a metaphor is a carrying across, a transfer - what word would one use to describe an attempt to describe something as itself? Autophor?
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What if you wanted both the literal and the metaphor? I'd go with the auto-metaphor, to coin a figure of speech.
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I guess I was too late, the gallery is no more. *sigh*
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I liked the reader comment taking the photographer to task for his "we escaped by the grace of God" comments. Something along the lines of, "So God wanted you to escape, but those other people to die horrible deaths, huh? Please." Spot-on. (The photos were cool, though.)
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Damn, missed the last 2/3 of the pictures (saw 1/3 and figured I'd come back later). From what I saw it's an amazing set.