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

Richard Misrach made this photograph in 2005 in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. It's a desolate scene of a house after what I presume is hurricane damage. It looks like nobody's home but someone wrote 'Bonnie' with a phone number in big letters on the side of the building. Looking at the image, I feel like it's more than just a record of disaster. There's a kind of stark beauty to the stillness and the muted colors, a testament to the resilience of places and people. I can imagine him trying to find the right angle to capture the scene. Misrach is interested in places where something extreme has occurred. I feel like here he is searching for a kind of truth. He seems to say that beauty and tragedy can coexist, and that even in the midst of destruction, there's still something worth seeing.