The city that care forgot. That’s us. New Orleans. Even as some areas are gentrified and priced out of the locals ability to buy or rent, others still languish almost 16 years after they were flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
It’s likely that many of these neighborhoods were failing long before the storm did its thing and put the final nails in their coffins.
And, that’s too bad. In this day and age of low housing stock and extreme rising costs of home ownership or rental, these flooded houses might have been able to reduce the pain.
However, these old buildings have been sitting for a long time. The city deems them unrepairable and demolishes them. I suppose that might be the way to go. But, it seems wrong to me even though I know it costs less to build something new rather than to restore and rebuild.
And, you wonder where my weird dreams come from?
Mix real life New Orleans with other real life experiences with whatever is buried in my brain and you get strange dreams.
I’ll write more about part of my dream in the next coming days. I haven’t forgotten. I can’t forget.
When I first photographed this abandoned house, the bushes and trees were green but manageable.
The next time I went back everything was overgrown. And then, the last time I returned everything was dying in place.
I haven’t been back in a while. I suspect that by now the little remaining wood of the house has started to rot. The bushes aren’t dying because they have truly been embedded themselves in the ruined building.
Photographing them is easy. It’s really just documentary work, and presenting the pictures to you.
As always.
One more thing. I’m starting to lose direction. I replied to a friend, that for me, social media has become a waste of time. It started from a question of privacy. She posted something on her blog and I started receiving ads for it here, on Storyteller.
Enough.
I’ll let you know, but I’m giving serious thought to ending Storyteller after 11 years of almost daily posting.
When I started this blog I thought it would be a way to generate work in one form or another. That hasn’t happened. I thought it would be a good way to build a community. I’ve grown a good number of readers but I never hear from you.
I read a lot of other blogs. I started looking at some of their comments. They get 80 or 90 on each post. At best, I get two or three on every other post, or something like that.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s me. I don’t know what it is about me but it is me.
They say with age comes wisdom. Understanding “It’s me” is very wise. I think.
STORYTELLER 
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