Category Archives: Photography

New Orleans ten years ago

Hello all,

Well as you can tell I’ve not been posting. Why should every post start with an apology? No one reads this, so I’m going to stop apologizing. Perhaps I’m apologizing to you in order to make excuses to myself. That has to be it. There. Problem solved without Dr. Phil or whomever is the latest TV psychologist. Except for Dr. Keith Ablow. What a douche.

Anyway, it’s now been ten years since the hurricanes swept through the New Orleans area, and there has been a lot on the news lately about it. I meant to try to dig up some pictures earlier so I could coincide with the media memories frenzy, but it didn’t happen in time. Besides, it all just seemed a bit too self-congratulatory to me, so again, I probably deliberately didn’t get around to it in order to avoid seeming like everyone else. Even though I’m not unique, I sure want to believe I am. I am comfortable with that delusion.

Back to the topic. I was in New Orleans four months after the storms, working with various health agencies that were determined to not only restore health services to the area but to improve on the delivery system. Prior to the storms, you either had insurance, and went to one of the big university hospitals, or you didn’t have insurance, and you went to Charity Hospital. Charity was where you’d also go for primary care. You’d go to the emergency room. Primary care for the uninsured was not prevalent. There were a scattering of privately run, donor-financed operations, oftentimes in collaboaration with a church, but not much. If you lived way outside of the city, you’d ride a bus for a couple of hours, sit in the emergency room at Charity, and if you were lucky enough to be seen that day, great. You’d get back on the bus and head home. If they didn’t see you, you still had to get on the bus to go home, but you’d be on it again the next morning to sit in line again. Great system huh?

In early January, 2006, I took these photographs in the lower ninth ward. The first one is of Fats Domino Publishing. He has since restored the building and it looks much better.

 

Fats Domino Publishing, January, 2006

Fats Domino Publishing, January, 2006

Kids used to play here

Kids used to play here

When the levee broke, it wasn't just water pouring into the neighborhood. This barge sits across what used to be several homes.

When the levee broke, it wasn’t just water pouring into the neighborhood. This barge sits across what used to be several homes.

Uninhabitable. You cannot just "go home." There is no home.

Uninhabitable. You cannot just “go home.” There is no home.

This used to be a street. Now there's a house there. Not a home. Just a house.

This used to be a street. Now there’s a house there. Not a home. Just a house.

This is what's left of the area near the main breach. Some sidewalks and concrete porches remain, but little else. This used to be a neighborhood.

This is what’s left of the area near the main breach. Some sidewalks and concrete porches remain, but little else. This used to be a neighborhood.

Four months later, there were still abandoned cars all over. The ones they had managed to move, were kept in a pile beneath the expressway leading in and out of New Orleans.

Four months later, there were still abandoned cars all over. The ones they had managed to move, were kept in a pile beneath the expressway leading in and out of New Orleans.

 

 

The thing I will always remember about my visits there was the utter lack of sound. In the lower ninth, where these photos were taken, there were no birds. No dogs. No children. No sounds of life. It was dusty, and the air still smelled of mildew and rot. Every once in a while you’d see a child’s toy, but it wouldn’t be next to a house, it would be stuck in a random tree. Powerful silence is quite the reminder of how fragile our little constructed corner of the galaxy truly is.

There’s also a new episode of the Prehensile and Gretel Show podcast available. On this one, Rita was unable to join, so I made up some stuff and then read from The Randy Scuffle Papers. This is your chance to hear it as it sounds from the mind of the author. Check it out here

-Phil Reebius

 

 

All photographs are copyright, Phil Reebius. I have the originals, so don’t try anything funny.

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Filed under Photography, Stories

Okay, I’m Pissed

The past month has gone by too fast. And everything I read about social media says you’re supposed to create content, content and even more content. I’ve always wondered who has the time to take all the selfies and spend time posting to Facebook and Twitter and all the other channels. When do they get any work done? Am I so inefficient that I have no time for all this self-promotion? I don’t get it.

At any rate, I’ve got a simmering issue and I just have to get it off my chest.

I used to shop all the time at a large photographic supply place that had two locations in the Chicago area. They had other locations as well. I spent thousands of dollars at this place. I bought my Nikon D-700 there, some lenses, lighting equipment, and an awesome printer for about $1,000. I bought all my paper from this place, as well as my printer ink. My wife Rita got me a great tripod and ball-head there too. So we’ve made more than a modest investment in them and they’ve received, in return, several thousand dollars from us.

So it made sense then, for birthdays and such, that my mother-in-law would get me a gift card from this place. I could get more paper, camera bags, or whatever I wanted. She knew I’d be happy getting things I could actually use. So I had a gift card from this place.

Well, this company went through a spectacular bankruptcy. Spectacular in that they didn’t notify their own employees about it, there was no warning. One morning, they just didn’t open up. I had noticed that the shelves had become a bit more sparsely stocked, yes, but there was no speculation, at least among the general public, that there was an impending bankruptcy. It does seem that there is an unfortunately close connection and similar history among several of the camera places that buy each other up, close, etc. Some weird cycle.

Well this store reopened. Same name. Same location. Same signs. Same products on the shelves. Same everything except for the employees. Since they now are closed on Saturdays (the only real visible change except for the employees) it was tough to get in there. Saturday is my day to go out and play and do things I need to get done. I figured a month ago that I had better get in there with the gift card and spend it while they were still in business. We went in, found something we liked, and when I tried to pay with the gift card, was told, “oh, that’s for the old Calumet; we can’t honor this.”

Seriously? I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars with you, and all you’d have to do (even if you are now the ‘new’ Calumet) to keep me as a customer, would be to honor the gift card. You have my mother-in-law’s money (super fixed income); you have the name and reputation of the company, and you have their mailing list (which you liberally use). But you’ve lost me as a customer. Goodbye Calumet. I’ll buy from B&H Photo.

On the upside, Rita and I released another episode of The Prehensile and Gretel Show last week, which celebrates in part, our survival of the July 4th festivities in our neighborhood. And our schnauzer got a bath today, so he’s now all fresh and huggable. He likes to play in the ferns and comes in the house with slugs all over him, which drive him nuts and frankly, it twists our sensibilities as well.

– Phil Reebius

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Filed under Complaints, Photography