Hanging on and Holding out in New Orleans after Katrina

Abstract

Hanging on and Holding out in New Orleans after Katrina Photographs and narratives by Thomas Neff Introduction by Moira Crone Photographer Thomas Neff entered the city in the first days after Katrina as a volunteer first responder. He soon began taking large-format black and white photographs and writing down the stories of natives he found marooned there, when the city was eighty percent under water. In these intimate, intense pictures, we see individuals who, though exhausted by grief and shock, are defiant, spontaneous, and resourceful. We see people reorganizing their lives, maintaining their individuality, their souls, their humor, and their culture—their citizenship in New Orleans. This crisis transformed all those who went through it: this is obvious in the face of Antoinette K-Doe, widow of Ernie K-Doe, at the Mother-in-Law Lounge, as she sits in the midst of the damage, assessing her future. It's also in the eyes of Melvin Smith, of Treme, who saved the lives of twenty-five of his neighbors. We see it in the clear gaze of Ride Hamilton, posed with his motorcycle, pausing from his work as a freelance medic, or in the eyes of Tommie Mabry, who, to keep sane while holed up in the Cooper Public Housing complex, became a chronicler, writing a diary about his days directly on the walls. We see it in the expression of Marie Jones, an Uptown matron, bewildered by the disheveled, in an eerily beautiful new world the tempest left her. Thrust suddenly into Fourth World conditions, abandoned by authorities and then under "occupation," these citizens made do, survived, saved lives, kept cool, had attitude: Caroline Koch's defiant stance atop her roof in Faubourg Marigny says it all. Neff's pictures embrace the breadth of New Orleans life, its diversity, quirkiness, creativity, and tolerance. They tell the stories that New Orleanians tell each other now—what happened at the edges, outside the TV lens. These pictures portray individuals who wouldn't abandon the city or their people, pets, or homes; who love it because it never was, exactly, America. These people hung on and held out, waiting with their wild tales when the rest of us came staggering back. [End Page 95] Click for larger view Figure 1 Tommie Elton Mabry November 17, 2005 From the outset, Tommie Elton Mabry documented the events of each post-storm day by writing on the interior walls of his "project" apartment. The daily entries soon covered every wall. City officials finally forced him out when they closed all the public housing complexes. Homeless and without transportation, Tommie moved his possessions to the second floor of another flooded house nearby, which had been abandoned for years. With a little work he made it livable, albeit without services of any kind. As winter approached, the first necessity was to staple black Visquine, which he called "Bisquick," over every glassless window. [End Page 96] Click for larger view Figure 2 Altheus and Gloria Banks May 12, 2006 The Bankses and their three dogs had been holding on for six days in their elevated house. When Gloria's health began to deteriorate, they knew it was time to leave. A passing airboat rescued them, but they had to leave the dogs behind—never to be seen again. The couple evacuated to an eldercare facility in Phoenix, where they stayed until January. Upon their discharge they were taken aback when FEMA paid for only four months. The last month cost them five thousand dollars. The Bankses were afraid to live in their desolate neighborhood after returning to New Orleans, so they have been staying in the home of lifelong friends. [End Page 97] Click for larger view Figure 3 Antoinette K-Doe November 2, 2005 When Antoinette returned to the famed Mother-in-Law Lounge, she found it moldy, rank, and utterly destroyed. Determined to rebuild to honor the memory of her famous late husband, Ernie, she began the arduous task...