In The Loupe TV, a brand new web TV series from Stella Kramer, Julie Grahame and Allegra Wilde, posted a video discussion of Hurricane Story today.
Stella and Julie introduce photographs from Hurricane Story and discuss the book as an example of how photographers can approach publication through considering a small press, who are able to give them a more personal connection and dedication to their work.
San Antonio alternative weekly The Current reviewed Hurricane Story today in conjunction with the photographs from the book currently on display as a signature exhibit at the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE International Photography Festival:
“Photographs of children’s toys threw yet another fatiguing stain of kitsch into the cultural wash over the last decade, but a stunning exception is Jennifer Shaw’s use of plastic action figures in “Hurricane Story,” her memoir of two month’s flight and survival after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in New Orleans….Unlike the majority of Katrina stories, which have portrayed the storm’s ruin of New Orleans or reflected on the lack of support to rebuild the city, Shaw’s narrative is told in circular form. As in fables and fairytales, her story is filled with almost unbelievable challenges, but the tale concludes with a beginning. After chaos and loss, a new cycle begins.”
Read the full review here, and if you’re near San Antonio, be sure to check out all forty-six photographs from Hurricane Story on display through October 24 as part of FOTOSEPTIEMBRE at the Instituto Cultural de México. This is the first time that all of the photographs have been displayed together!
Gary W. Clark, who won a copy of Hurricane Story from HolgaDirect, shared a review of the book on his blog.
“I can highly recommend Hurricane Story to anyone that may be inspired by the use of unconventional photography for storytelling. If you are a Holga or Lomo photographer, then the book is simply a must-have.”
One, One Thousand, a monthly publication focusing on photography produced in the Southeastern United States by emerging and established photographers, featured Jennifer Shaw in its September issue. Founded in 2010 by Daniel A. Echevarria and Natalie Minik, One, One Thousand features new photographic works both from and about the South. See the feature here and be sure to check out the other great projects they’re featuring while you’re there!
After the chaos and unrest caused by Hurricane Irene this weekend and in remembrance of today’s sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, StyleSubstanceSoul, an online magazine dedicated to bringing together women who want to “look good, feel good, and do good,” interviewed Jennifer Shaw on her experiences with Hurricane Katrina and returning to them through photographing Hurricane Story:
“Each photograph is accompanied by one line of text that gives it context — no other words are necessary. The result is an innovative, powerful and moving account of an event that has historical significance for us as a nation and personal meaning to each of us as individuals. I’m honored that Jennifer is sharing her story with us, and hope you’ll get a copy of her book. It is truly a work of art and an ode to the human spirit.”
Read the interview here for insight into Jennifer’s thoughts on today.
With the eerie timing of Hurricane Irene this past weekend and today marking the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, many are reflecting on the arrival of hurricane season and remembering those of the past. NPR’s photography blog, “The Picture Show” features a selection of the photographs from Hurricane Story today:
“To simulate the hazy tunnel vision of those memories, Shaw re-created scenes with small toys and captured them with a toy camera — a Holga. With brief, one-line captions the story unfolds: A couple gives birth, they travel the country in search of shelter, they return to a destroyed city. There are major setbacks and tiny triumphs, and it all ends with the Dorothean maxim that ‘there’s no place like home.'”
Check out the full post and a gallery of photographs from Hurricane Story over at NPR.
Beautiful book blog The Oxen of the Sun writes about Hurricane Story today just as Hurricane Irene is en route to the author’s home in Brooklyn. Please stay safe, Jeff!
“Shaw’s photography is hazy and deeply intriguing, and provides the kind of brief glimpses that make you want to see a wider scope with a heightened clarity… By tightening her shots and limiting her canvas, Shaw makes Hurricane Story a much more personal book than a full-scale disaster chronicle. It’s exactly what it should be: a very successful book of narrative photography, and one that will make viewers what to see what else she’s capable of.”
OnMilwaukee.com posted a wonderful interview with Jen today about the process of shooting Hurricane Story and the makings of the book.
“Hurricane Story” is a small hardcover book about the size of a 45 rpm and it sings a unique visual song about one family’s Katrina experience.
Read the full interview here for a behind-the-scenes taste!
New Orleans arts and culture hub Pelican Bomb just posted their review of Hurricane Story:
“Hurricane Story is a small book—seven by seven inches—and aside from a brief foreword by Rob Walker and Shaw’s even briefer artist statement, the story is told in less than 500 words. Evacuating in the dead of night, nine months pregnant, Shaw breaks down two months and 6,000 miles on the road into poetic fits of a few words per page (the longest is twelve). And then there are the photographs. Hurricane Katrina made landfall and Shaw gave birth to her first son on the same day, so it’s somehow fitting that when she and her new family finally made it back home, she began to replicate their emotional yo-yo of a journey with toys and dolls—a king-cake baby, an army green soldier figurine, miniature wine bottles. The waters rose and stagnated, the baby cooed and cried, Shaw took up smoking again and fantasized about bludgeoning her husband. Taken with the unpredictable, spellcasting lens of a cheap Holga camera, the resulting forty-six images are mysterious, playful, heartrending, triumphant, and at times very funny.”
Cara Diaconoff reviewed Hurricane Story today on the PLOP! literary review blog. PLOP! is a Seattle-based “performing and online media project designed to promote cultural literacy and education as an opportunity for public engagement in the arts.”
“Hurricane Story is a miniature—an unabashed miniature, at once polite and audacious in its insistence on the importance of one family’s experience of a paradigm-changing natural disaster. In its honesty, reserve, and visual innovation, it is a vital piece in the mosaic of Hurricane Katrina memoirs, novels, and films. It is also a beautiful, strange, and provocative piece of art in its own right. May it find a great audience of readers, viewers, and sympathetic dreamers.”
Read the full review here, and to learn more about PLOP!’s fascinating projects, visit their website.
