I'm not from New Orleans and I think that the rest of the nation is still kind of turning a deaf ear towards the locals there. I went to New Orleans last November. The first building I remember seeing was a blue house with the (now iconic) 'X' on it. As we passed the streets in the 9th ward I just shook my head and cried quietly. The bravery of the people and their ability to smile touched me.

You've done a wonderful job photographing the still remains of the storm as well as life afterwards. I'll be watching your gallery for updates.

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Howard: "Yeah, well, I'm not gonna take him up on his offer, you know. I don't need him. I've already got a shallow mate who dresses like a.. futuristic prostitute."

Vince: [smiles] "Thanks Howard"

Wow, thanks for such touching comments. I appreciate your thoughts of New Orleans and the people here. And thanks also for keeping an eye on what other photos I'll be posting.

You're more than welcome.

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Howard: "Yeah, well, I'm not gonna take him up on his offer, you know. I don't need him. I've already got a shallow mate who dresses like a.. futuristic prostitute."

Vince: [smiles] "Thanks Howard"

looking at this picture almost made me take a moment of silence. it's sad and kind of chilling, which is what i'd imagine being there would feel like, too. the collage idea is a good one.

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I HAVE A NEW ACCOUNT: [link]

Thanks for the comment and sharing your emotion. That's kind of what I wanted to accomplish by doing those collages.
I saw in your gallery that you do a lot of drawing. Me too! If interested you can see mine on my Kicks01 account at this [link]

I love this photograph although I wish it were a little bigger so we could see the details.

When I was four years younger, and a little while after Katrina, I was very much pro the entire destruction of New Orleans. Again, four years later, it's my dream destination. I am so in love with the cajun culture, the music, and perhaps most importantly, the food.

How is NOLA doin' now? I keep hearing different things from different people. 'It's better than everyone says,' or 'It's so much worse than everyone says.'

Thanks for viewing my photos and the comments.

I've been considering redoing these colleges in a larger format. I'll let you know when I do.

If you've been wanting to come to NOLA for a while I say come on down. You'll really enjoy it. But don't expect to get a true Cajun experience. New Orleans is more Creole than Cajun. Originally, Creole was a person of French descent born in the colony. After Spain owned the colony Creole became a person born in the colony of French and Spanish descent. That would be the case with me on my father's side. Somehow blacks started to adopt the term. I'm not sure how.

Cajuns mostly settled in the area outside of New Orleans. They were the French settlers that were kicked out of Canada. Some went to northern states, some went back to France, and others came down here and created their own culture (that's me on my mother's side). Oh, the ones who went to France were eventually kicked out of there too and they did make their way to New Orleans, but adapted to the Creole culture.

Is NOLA doing good or bad now? That depends on who you talk to and what they have personally seen, experienced, or heard about. Everybody has different sources of information, so you'll get different stories. As far as I know there is not a single gauge that NOLA can be measured to determine how we're doing overall.

If a person is more in tuned to the crime issue they might say that NOLA is worst off. Yet we did get rid of our DA who was letting criminals out of jail and not prosecuting others. That hasn't been happening since he resigned.

Pre-K (pre Katrina) our public school system was always in the news for its failures and corruption. With new superintendent and Recovery School District and Charter schools I'm not seeing all these terrible stories on the news anymore.

We're still not at 100% in our public services: Police, Fire, Medical, and Transportation. But we're getting there.

Housing is still an issue. After Katrina you heard the expression "We'll come back Bigger and Better". Of the homes that I see being repaired or totally rebuilt, they are much better and many really are Bigger! I see many historic type homes that were in disrepair Pre-K that are now gorgeous. Neighborhoods that are repairing are looking better and better. However, there are still areas of NOLA that houses are still abandoned with weeds growing all over. Many lots are still empty where a house once stood.

I work in the distribution industry. Katrina destroyed one of our two retail stores and crippled our wholesale distribution service. Now we have four retail stores (2 in NOLA, 1 on the north shore, and 1 in Baton Rouge) and our wholesale division is hitting record numbers. I'm sure some other companies have similar situations and some have gone the opposite way and went out of business. I know some that have failed.

Overall, we are improving. We knew from day one that it was a long road home. It's only been two and a half years. That may seem long, but with the total number of entities that need help recovering it's really not that long at all.

I hope my long winded reply has not been too boring and has helped you understand us better. Feel free to ask any questions you want.

My parents have a doors of New Orleans painting in the entrance to the house. If I had money, I'd buy this as a print and see if they'd hang it next to the other one.

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Why visit my gallery? When you could check out This guy's awesome work.

That's a nice compliment. But before it could be blown up poster size I'd have to rebuild it in a larger file. To blow it up now it would get all pixeled. Send me a note with your email address and I'll see if I can put something together that you can bring to a printer.