Hurricane Story Reviewed on Lenses on the World
Derek Darke reviews Hurricane Story on the new British photo blog, Lenses on the World. “This sequence of 46 images recounts not only the story from leaving to returning but also depicts moments of despair, joy, fear, friendship and even humour. Shaw’s method focuses upon the subject while the images hazy properties leave space for […]
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Recommends Hurricane Story
Jim Higgins, book editor of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel included Hurricane Story in his recent list of 52 summer book recommendations.
Oitzarisme Features Hurricane Story
Constantin Nimigean recently shared a selection of images from Hurricane Story on Oitzarisme, a website featuring an international selection of compelling contemporary photography. See the feature here.
The fine line between meaningful art and disaster porn
In late August 2005, the levees on the canals south of Lake Pontchartrain gave way and plunged New Orleans into the contemporary art world. If that sounds like a creepy thing to say, it’s not my idea. New Orleans gallery owner Arthur Roger and others told the Christian Science Monitor last year how the storm yanked New Orleans artists into a conversation with the world outside the Mississippi Delta as never before, prompting new art that was less insular and somehow more globally relevant. Brad Pitt showed up with his pink houses, and curator Dan Cameron launched Prospect.1, a citywide art biennial cut from the cloth of the Venice Biennale. Nearly overnight, the city joined the list of nationally significant art destinations.
Flood Borne
It’s hardly a secret that there are differences between reality and photography, yet some of those differences can still be a little surprising. Take dolls and toys. In the real world, dolls and toys ” but especially dolls ” are usually associated with the soft, fuzzy world of childhood innocence. In art photography, their history has long been darker and snarkier if not downright cynical, a tradition that harks back to at least the Dadaists and surrealists if not further.
Labor of Love
Shaw, now 35, and husband Cesar Sousa hit the road the day before the storm struck, making their way to a hotel in southern Alabama before stopping for the night. Shaw was pregnant, due on Sept. 2. She intended to have natural childbirth. A friend put her in touch with a midwife near Huntsville, Ala., just in case the baby came sooner than expected. Which, of course, it did.
You Tube Video Interview
You Tube Video Interview of Jennifer Shaw by Times Picayune Art Critic Doug McCash
