ART/BOOK: Still Here and Sanctuary capture post-Katrina New Orleans

STILL HERE - Tonight (10/2) @ PowerHouse Arena in Brooklyn: August 29, 2008 marked the third anniversary of the horror that Hurricane Katrina inflicted upon the north-central Gulf Coast. Its devastation is a wound not yet healed and its survivors are the subject of Joseph Rodriguez’s fourth powerHouse Book, Still Here: Stories After Katrina. In it, he documents the ongoing expressions of hope, perseverance, and suffering in the affected communities.On Thursday, October 2, 2008, Rodriguez will present a slide show of images from the book and will speak of his experiences while photographing and interviewing families and individuals throughout New Orleans and Texas. Like the photographers who worked with the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression, Rodríguez’s work alerts readers to the ongoing pressures faced by some of the country’s most distressed and vulnerable people. His black-and-white photographs remind the viewer that despite the loss of home, community, and culture, so many continue to push forward, and are “still here.”

Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: powerHouse Arena
Street: 37 Main Street
City/Town: Brooklyn, NY
Phone: 718-666-3049

ALSO: SANCTUARY on exhibit thru October 4 @ Soho Photo:

Sanctuary features six photographers from New Orleans–Victoria Ryan, Samuel Portera, Lee Area, Eric Paul Julien, Jennifer Shaw and Michel Varisco—all brought together by the devastation and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It allowed them to reexamine their own sacred places and the refuge that is New Orleans. Sanctuary is about this seductive city of dreams and inspiration where one can muse about life and death, direction and vision. For these six photographers, sanctuary literally came in the refuge of their art and resulted in six unique visions of the city. The 30 images in the show describe life spawned by the Mississippi, its rich wetlands and fragility of the land, its historic architecture, and free spirited people. Photographer Michel Varisico’s exhibit was sponsored in part by the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation.

Soho Photo
15 White St, NYC 10013
212-226-8571