About the Book
Hurricane Katrina was the most costly natural disaster in the history of the United States. The Category 1 hurricane, which landed August 29, 2005 in the Gulf Coast region, caused 81.2 billion dollars in property damage, killed 1,836 people, and permanently displaced hundreds of thousands more. In the weeks following the disaster the international media criticized the failure of federal, state, and local governments to act competently and swiftly to restore order and assist victims, as well as the faulty infrastructure that had allowed the storm to effect such severe destruction. On-the-ground reporting also revealed that tens of thousands of impoverished people-nearly all of whom were African- American-were enduring conditions of extreme squalor, with seeming indifference from the government. Beyond the economic costs, vast emotional and psychological traumas continue to plague the communities affected by the disaster.
Still Here, the fourth powerHouse Book by photographer Joseph Rodríguez, documents the ongoing expressions of hope, perseverance, and suffering in the still-devastated communities of New Orleans and Texas. Rodríguez spent two years photographing and interviewing families and individuals who shared their daily struggles to rebuild their lives.
Like the photographers who worked with the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression in the 1930s, Rodríguez's work alerts Americans to the ongoing pressures faced by some of the country's most distressed and vulnerable citizens. Nearly three years since the mass exodus that followed Hurricane Katrina, well over 100,000 people have not returned to New Orleans. These black-and- white portraits of the displaced, and of others who have returned to the city despite spiraling crime rates and desperate poverty, remind us that in spite of the loss of home, community, and culture, so many are pushing forward, and are "still here."
About the Author :
Joseph Rodriguez was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He began studying photography at the School of Visual Arts and went on to receive an Associate of Applied Science degree at New York City Technical College. He worked in the graphic arts industry before deciding to pursue photography further. In 1985 he graduated with a Photojournalism and Documentary diploma from the International Center of Photography in New York. He went on to work for Black Star photo agency, and print and online news organizations like Esquire, The Guardian, Mother Jones, National Geographic, New America Media, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Stern, and The Washington Post. He has received awards and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Artists' Fellowship, USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism, the Open Society Institute Justice Media Fellowship and Katrina Media Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography, and the Alicia Patterson Fellowship Fund for Investigative Journalism. He has been awarded Pictures of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri, in 1990, 1992, 1996 and 2002. He is the author of Spanish Harlem, part of the “American Scene” series, published by the National Museum of American Art/ D.A.P., as well as East Side Stories: Gang Life in East Los Angeles, Juvenile, Flesh Life Sex in Mexico City, and Still Here: Stories After Katrina, published by powerHouse Books. Recent exhibitions include Galerie Bene Taschen, Cologne, Germany; Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography, University of La Verne, California; Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, Wales, UK Institute for Public Knowledge, New York, NY; Moving Walls, Open Society Institute, New York, NY; and Cultural Memory Matters, 601 Art Space, New York, NY.
Review :
"Still Here gives an up close, unflinching look at people displaced, getting back on their feet in New Orleans and starting over in Texas." -- Mother Jones
