I had to admire Thomas Neff who was in New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and captured both the horrifying reality of the destruction but also the hope and resiliency of the people. It wasn't just the photos, but the stories which accompanied them which truly made one appreciate the gravity of this tragedy. Some refused to leave their home and belongings behind or they were protecting their property. Others simply didn’t have the resources to live somewhere else. The elderly, Neff said, were particularly reluctant to leave because they were afraid of the unknown. One of his photos was of an old man outside a destroyed home with the caption, “Im 87 years old…where exactly am I going to go?” SWOT teams had to get people out of their homes. I tried putting myself in their mind-state, see it from their point-of-view, and it wasn't pretty. To see these photos and these people and see what they were thinking was very powerful. There was one photo of a woman in just a tank top and underwear on her roof, with "THIS IS NOT AMERICA" written in giant letters on her roof. Another photo was of a man who took matters into his own hands and saved not only his own but multiple lives by building a boat. The captions was, "Over 20 people were saved with his "Ark" and paddles."

All in all, an interesting Common Event that brought us back to that dark time and showed us even more the power of photography. I even got an insightful quote about photography which Mr. Neff said a friend and fellow photographer said: “A good photographer gives while a bad photographer takes.”

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