The Dust Never Settles

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More About

• Hurricane Katrina
• Wyatt Anderson
• Jennifer Shaw
• 2011 Japan Disaster
• Accidents and Disasters

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It's been almost six years since Hurricane Katrina, two since the earthquake hit Haiti. Three visiting photographers consider the aftermath to these disasters in The Dust Never Settles, and they'll discuss their work at tonight's book-signing, lecture, and mid-show reception. Jennifer Shaw was nine months pregnant and living in New Orleans when the hurricane hit. Instead of employing photojournalism to document the storm, she later created small, smeared toy tableaux to represent her own sudden evacuation and subsequent return to Nola. By contrast, Dave Anderson (also in New Orleans) and Wyatt Anderson (in Haiti) do more straightforward reportage in their large color images. Here are children living in tents, destroyed churches, gradual rebuilding, and the endless patience of the homeless and dispossessed who, in truth, have no alternative to being patient. As we just witnessed in the Japanese quake and tsunami, the catastrophe only takes seconds, like a few blinks of the camera shutter. But the “recovery”—which is never total, never complete—can have the duration of childhood, youth, and even a lifetime. Along the Gulf Coast and Caribbean, one suspects, many more photographers will fill books and portfolios for decades to follow. BRIAN MILLER
Mondays, Fridays, 9 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesdays, Thursdays, 12-9:30 p.m.; Fri., May 6, 6-9 p.m. Starts: April 22. Continues through May 29, 2011