by Mario Tama is a photographer for Getty Images. He recorded the immediate effect and the ongoing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mario knows what the rest of us have conveniently forgotten: New Orleans is still fallow and fragile as it tries to weight up, once again, from its soaking ashes.
To memorialize New Orleans, and to help in its ongoing reconstruction, Mario has a book for sale in September documenting his work in Louisiana — “Coming Back: New Orleans Resurgent.”
Here’s the PR Blurp:
Of the vast amount of media coverage regarding Hurricane Katrina that shocked the nation and caused a moral outcry of conscience at governmental mismanagement and near-criminal inaction, the images by photographer Mario Tama were simply among the best. But remarkably, when the initial catastrophe waned and other press went away, Tama stayed with the support and encouragement of his colleagues at Getty Images and continued to document the process of recovery (and some of its terrible failures). His constancy has resulted in a large and moving body of work that displays the resilience of the human spirit even amid such immense struggle, creating an optimistic portrait of New Orleans rather than one of only destruction.
You can also view Mario’s images right now at the Umbrage gallery in Brooklyn until September 14, 2010.
100% of the book proceeds for Getty Images will be donated back into New Orleans in support of the “New Schools for New Orleans” movement to create and restore excellent public schools in Katrina’s wake.
This is fantastic, David. It’s important to be reminded that you need not help only victims of the latest and greatest tragedies — there are people suffering from the sorrows of the past.
That’s right, Gordon! Mario is pressing us all forward into the future — while honor the horrible past that has now become a part of each of us.