Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005] Possibly 2005 - 2010

Richard Misrach made this photograph in 2005, capturing a scene in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Look at the way Misrach composes this image. It's not just a snapshot; it's a deliberate act of framing. I imagine him, camera in hand, walking through these ravaged neighborhoods. The light must have been eerie. What was he thinking as he framed this shot? Did he feel like an intruder, or an empathetic witness? The boarded-up house, with those messages scrawled on the plywood—it's raw, it's urgent. It feels like a scream, a prayer, etched onto the landscape. The materiality of the scene—the rough wood, the faded paint, the grainy texture of the photograph—all speak to the human experience of disaster. It reminds me of other photographers who have documented disaster—the way they use light and shadow to convey both devastation and resilience. We're all just trying to make sense of it all, one frame at a time.