(Click on each picture or the above text menus for the photograph galleries)
I live here, in New Orleans. I was in the city and Gulf Coast every single day from before
Katrina, to its landfall, to its aftermath. I lived the months it was without regular food,
water, electricity. I know what we all in the Gulf Coast survived through.
I have travelled from New Orleans to Mississippi to Texas to Plaquemines to St. Bernard
and Jefferson Parish to cover every aspect of the storm with tenderness, intimacy,
integrity, and honesty.
This is a small sample from 30,000 photographs taken since just before Katrina made
landfall.
I continue to work closely and side-by-side with first responders, residents, government
leaders, and volunteers to capture their stories in photographs and video. Working
alongside the heroes, residents, and people afftected by Katrina, allows an intimate and
detailed portrait to be made. I have been on body recovery with Urban Search and
Rescue, and in the destroyed houses of victims, and in the morgue with the coroners, and
in airplanes and boats looking over the disappearing wetlands.
Many journalists only spend 15 minutes with a person, often at a distance and without
their consent or permission. They often do not credit or tell the full story of their subject,
and twist words and events around to make it dramatic enough to sell a million
newspapers or make the evening news. This angers me as a fellow journalist. As I always
believe the truth is dramatic enough, and those directly involved in disasters from first
responders to residents deserve their whole story to be told, with their own words, with
the only agenda being to let the world know who these real people are - and that they are
often heroes, in big ways and small ways, from rescuing hundreds to helping hammer in
a new roof on a new house.
I spend many hours, and sometimes weeks with each person and group, so I may hear
their story, from their mouths, and so the world may know them as personally as I do -
their name, their face, their contribution to the Katrina story. I do not look for
controversial or sensational topics as other reporters do. I look for who these people are
inside, the hard work they do, how they have suffered yet continue to carry on and help
others - be it first responder or resident.
If they are a firefighter, I ride in the truck with them - if it is a volunteer, I often put
down my camera and help hammer in nails - if it is a resident, I help them dig through
debris looking for cherished items - whoever they are, whatever it is, I help carry
equipment, belongings, tools, and get dirty with them all. I share lunch and dinner, and
even eventually share personal stories only friends share.
I become friends with all I photograph. This is extremely important to me, to earn the
trust of all involved. Very few photojournalists earn this respect from their subjects. To
me, it is a sign of a job well done. That we can all agree that the story is told properly.
And that the person involved, is proud to hang the pictures I have taken of them and
their job, on their walls at home.
I live here, and I see the hard work done on all levels from all people, and the courage so
many have inside of them. This is what I capture.
Ride Hamilton
Photojournalist