Last night, I witnessed a more notorious type of photography, that is, images of the common wealth. However, there laid irony in the fact that the backgrounds of these individuals were not so common after all. Thomas Neff, the skilled photographer, ventured out to New Orleans after the tragedy of hurricane Katrina. In his journey, he came across all types of people: the afraid, the brave, and ultimately the confused. Afraid were those who had not heard from family and friends in days. Brave were those who stuck it out even when everyone else was escaping to safety. Brave were those who paddled through the flood with only a mere life jacket, risking their own lives to save neighbors and at times even strangers. And confused were those, who were strangled by their emotions unable to make a decisive move at any point and time. But dazzeled by the tragedy was the whole wide world, even those seas apart.

One of the most alluring photos to me personally, was the one in which a woman stood on the roof of her garage in a superman pose, with a lettering beneath her feet. The big, white words spelled "THIS IS NOT AMERICA". Perhaps the impact came from the contrast of the serenity portrayed by the cotton-like clouds versus the crude truth directed from the words and the one single woman who stood by it. Hurricane Katrina had torn New Orleans apart, yet why had taken so long for help to arrive?

Another equally memorable photograph was one of an individual who had kept a sort of newsworthy diary of the events of the day. No his writings were not found on paper but instead on the walls of his dwelling place. The scriptures were such an honest depiction of the desperation people went through, that a musuem actually, eventually, visited the home and peeled the walls to permanently save these writings. 

All in all, the event was an eye opener to the real stories of the New Orleans' community, to the fear that pervaded and the incrementing courage that overcame it.