Wanted Dead or Alive
Leonard after Katrina, Metairie LA 10-13-05all reproduction rights reserved William Greiner
Alec Soth , in his widely read blog, yesterday talked about the lack of photographs which included people. He went on to talk about Robert Polidori and his Katrina images. Reading this opened a wound, which I thought had healed.
I am speaking about the image Mr. Polidori made of a dead man, on his own bed and in the privacy of his own home, partially covered by a blanket. I spoke to a number of people about this image , and to my surprise, few shared my anger at the invasion of privacy.
I blogged about it at the time , and my feeling then as it is now, is that if I were this dead man's brother, son or friend, and found Mr. Polidori making this photograph - he would be looking for a good dentist to fit him for dentures!
posted by William Greiner at 10:09 AM
3 Comments:
I share your anger. I also think there are some legal issues if he entered the home without permission to photograph the body. I have avoided people in most all of my Katrina work because I am trying to convey the impact on the built environment:
www.epr-art.com
People forget too soon what hurricanes can do, and convince themselves it cannot happen again.
You aren't the only one angry about Polidori's project in New Orleans. Louisiana photographer and Katrina survivor Matthew White was so incensed by the liberties Polidori took while photographing in New Orleans that he wrote a criticsm of his efforts at Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Recovery, www.hurricane-katrina.org. You can view that post here
Margaret Saizan, Publisher
Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane & Disaster Recovery
Thanks Margaret for bring Matthew's writing about Polidori to my attention! This is the first thing I have seen anybody write that gets my point! And that I find amazing!
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