Several people have asked me to see my "art" photography. Often I wonder what they mean by that. After all, is that not what I do everyday? Is my documentation of life not in fact my art? Well I decided to look it up in the dictionary and there are several different definitions. Here are a few.
ART n 1: the products of human creativity.
2: a superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation.
3: photographs or other visual representations in a printed publication.
But my favorite has to be this one.
4: the creation of beautiful or significant things.
So with that in mind I will post a few things that I find beautiful if not significant. These are the things I enjoy shooting. Quiet moments that strike me. A child wearing his father's coat being carried out of a football game in the pouring rain. A laborer working alone under the hot sun. A dedicated wife adjusting the collar of her Alzheimer's-stricken husband before a photo shoot. My sister during her bridal portrait sitting... squatting to rest her legs like she did when she was a young girl. 
Beautiful or Significant Things
Portrait of a Young Survivor
Children run through the halls of a French Quarter Catholic school while nuns in flowing white habits try to slow the excitement. The warm, humid November air blows off the river and through the courtyard filled with basketball and four square courts. Guided by the enthusiastic cheers of Sister Mary Rose a group of children unload donated supplies and toys from a truck with Indiana plates while a young survivor gives an interview in the corner.
Earlier... a toilet overflows in a bathroom and a nun tells a group of children they must use the one down the hall because this one is flooded. Moments later a young girl no more than five tugs on the sleeve of the glowing white drape. In a worry-filled voice the girl asks "Sister Mary Rose... how high will the water get this time?" My heart breaks.
Going Back
"Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done." - Willie Nelson
Tomorrow I leave again for South Louisiana. First a LSU football game and then a 4-day series on the state of the City of New Orleans. I am not totally sure how I feel about being there again. In one way I know that it will be nice to see parts of the city returned to normal. It will be good to know things are coming back. But I feel like its going to be hard to get over what I saw and experienced there before. To put that out of my mind and be able to tell the story at hand without rehashing the past will be my biggest challenge.
I will be working with a reporter who I do not know and we only have three days to complete the work. The combination of the two is going to make it interesting, but taxing work.
My state of mind today is strange. This was a great week. But yesterday was bad and today is gray. I want to leave for New Orleans on a good note... but its hard sometimes.
