Before and after

Looking to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Katrina in an artful way? Check out Before During After, a compendium of images from 12 local photographers including longtime LSU photography professor Thomas Neff. The book is a collection of visual responses to the storm’s aftermath and gives a poignant peek into the worlds of people grappling with such devastating loss.

Neff, who sometimes slept in his van for up to three days while working on the project, figured that the “holdouts”—the people who stayed to ride out the storm—would have some interesting stories to tell. “Most people were quite willing to talk, wanting to talk, needing to talk,” he says. “The idea of the book is to show what the photographers had been working on before the storm, what their work was like during, and what it has been like ever since. In every way—artistically, personally—we were impacted by what we saw and who we met.”

The images are harrowing, eerily beautiful and thought-provoking, but you’ll find more than pictures. There is a foreword by writer John Biguenet and an historical essay by Dr. Tony Lewis, the curator of visual arts at the Louisiana State Museum. Plus, each of the 12 artists has written an essay about the experience of photographing post-Katrina New Orleans.

Before During After certainly takes readers back to that trying time, but it also reminds us how we came together. beforeduringafterproject.blogspot.com