While most of the entries found here at Woof Tales are about our wonderful animal companions and the creatures we share this world with, this story is a bit different. This is a story from afar.

This summer, instead of spending my three months of summer break working at The Big Bad Woof, I took a month off to New Orleans, LA to work with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a grassroots, non-profit, watchdog organization. My task was to collect images of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath from the residents of St. Bernard Parish located just ten minutes from New Orleans and one of the worst hit locations in Louisiana. This was where the levees broke, flooding from the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) was the most prominent, where wetland destruction has escalated due to human activities, and the location of the one million gallon oil spill due to improper hurricane preparation by the Murphy Oil Refinery.

During my time there, I worked with the members of the community to put together a photo exhibit of over 300 photographs taken entirely by the residents. I wanted a raw perspective, not captured by the media, from those who were there through it all.

Most of the photographers still live in Chalmette, while the rest have relocated to Texas because their homes have been completely destroyed. The stories they all shared with me were touching, courageous, inspiring, and full of heart-break. This is their story of survival and hope when they were forgotten by the institutions that were supposed to help. The following link is to an article that I wrote in collaboration with six of the twenty-two photographers for the Community Arts Network and Grist Magazine: Life After Katrina

The photo exhibit is currently traveling around the country with the majority stops at colleges and universities and small galleries. While the goal of the photo exhibit is to show the country the story of the tragedy through images, it also served as a protest of the lack of action Murphy Oil took to clean up the oil spill which contaminated over 1700 homes. In September 2006, Murphy Oil finally settled with the parish for over $300 million. This proves that no matter your age, level of education, race, or socioeconomic class you do have a voice to help make human and environmental justice possible.

The exhibit will finish its one year tour in D.C. and Maryland in the summer of 2007 before continuing on for its second year.

To see the entire exhibit online, please visit: Life in the Wake of Katrina

For questions or comments please contact: stbernardphoto@gmail.com