mom, january 14th, 2009

mr. lawrence, 2009

this is mr. lawrence, phillip's grandfather, 17 years after i first met him. the neighborhood around him has changed dramatically since katrina. i notice the trees are missing, the beautiful plum. there's less shade, less green. and there is a drug house next door. "young people, goin' down that wrong road. only lead to trouble. smokin' that weed. lead to that white stuff, then that her-oin....i see some 80 year old still lookin' for that fix. say you can't go down that wrong road, don't lead nowhere". he's friendly with everyone, and they shoot him an 'alright mr. lawrence', but he keeps a wary eye on the traffic continually pulling up out front. he lends a man a few dollars, a man he knows who comes up to his fence. then watches as the man tries to casually head next door. he just looks at me with these sad and knowing eyes, eyebrow raised with a little smile, as if to say, 'whatcha gonna do?'. our neighbor vera died during katrina and was buried in a makeshift grave at the corner of jackson and philip st. it made the national news. her partner, max, died shortly after. they say he just couldn't go on without his vera. i can still hear her voice ringing through the french doors as i tried to sleep in. it all seems just a bit harsher now. mr lawrence is still doing work on his home. he has removed trees, is planting trees, and is working on his front porch. his magnolia, "it was all hollowed out. coulda fit you and me up in there. coulda been a threesome up in there". he is the same man, softened some by the years, the children, the grandchildren. the light in his eyes, his face shines when he smiles. just like philip, his grandson. the doctor won't let him drive anymore so he feels a bit stuck on his property...but there's always work to do. in that way he has not changed, he works. he had open heart surgery and shows me the scar. then he brings out his pictures from a trip to washington state, where he went to see his sister. his pictures are of houses there, houses that he liked. and some of his sister's house and his sister, and the mountains. he brings me in and shows me his father, handsome in uniform in ww1, who would be 107 if he was alive.

i'm hoping i get to go back soon to visit again and show him some of the pictures i've got for him.

i love photography, yes i do, 2009

my new favorite photograph

bike kill, new years eve day, 2008

liz liz liz

christmas morning, irish channel, 2008

mama jensen, second line, in the 9th ward, 2008

what i did on new years eve day, 2008

new years in new orleans i was at a bike kill. it was the most fun i've had in a long time. these people know how to kick it. jousting, chariot races, mayhem. pictures to come.

divorce, 2009

ade, on frenchmen st., 2009

"ade, you're different every day man."

"what? i have no identity....i have no laundry....america is crazy."

sartre

“life has no meaning a priori. before you come alive, life is nothing; it’s up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing else but the meaning that you choose.”

"even this disability from which i suffer i have assumed by the very fact that i live; i surpass it toward my own projects, i make of it the necessary obstacle for my being and i cannot be crippled without choosing myself as crippled. this means that i choose the way i constitute my disability (as 'unbearable', 'humiliating, 'to be hidden', 'to be revealed to all')."

"neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor."

new orleans returns, 2008

new orleans was a beautiful time. i'm moved by the energy and work ethic of the people i encountered, people who are committed to staying and rebuilding. i did some work with rubarb (rusted up beyond all recognition bikes), a community bike shop out in the 9th ward at galvez and tonti. they are open several days a week and provide kids with bikes, parts, tools and the support they need to fix their bikes, build a bike and get a bike on the road. it's also a real community space, a learning center, a place where kids can share time with each other and adults while learning about bikes, about life and about working together. a bunch of us, some kids, liz and lani and i, went out for a bike ride delivering their rubarb christmas cards to the neighborhood. pictures of the ride to come. i also worked with the bridge house. the bridge house has been in new orleans for a long time. as it says on their website, they are a place of intangibles...please visit their site to find out more. if you are at all interested in donating money or time to new orleans you can't do better than these two organizations. there is, of course, still lots of rebuilding going on, and lots of work to be done. our suffering economy is being felt by people in new orleans as it is everywhere. however they are still reeling from the devestation caused by the after effects of katrina. giving to, and working with, particular local efforts is necessary and effective.

new orleans is on fire, 2008

a collage i made while sitting in the kitchen at the 2420.