Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish #02-04 2008 - 2011

Deborah Luster made this haunting image, "Tooth for an Eye", using photography and text to create a kind of open book. On the right, we see a scene, almost like a memory surfacing. It’s Orleans Parish, caught in monochrome, grainy like an old film. There’s a figure painted on the side of a building, caught mid-leap, or maybe falling. You get the sense that Luster is inviting us into a place that’s marked by absence, marked by loss. I think about what it was like for her, walking those streets, camera in hand, trying to make sense of what violence leaves behind. The photograph isn't just documenting; it's participating in the story, trying to piece together fragments of experience. The flat affect, a sense of distance, and the framing create a feeling of witnessing something unsettling but real. Luster is in conversation with other artists who use photography to grapple with history, memory, and social issues. She is trying to figure things out by using what she has: the eye, the lens, the light.