A photographer spoke about the need to humanize tragedy Wednesday—putting a face to the statistics of a disaster.
Alex Harris, a documentary photographer and professor of the practice of public policy and documentary studies, talked about his exhibition, “After the Storm: Post-Katrina Photographs,” as part of the Provost’s Lecture Series, “Natural Disasters and Human Responses.” His lecture examined 15 photographs taken six months after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and drew about 40 members of the students and faculty.
The talk centered on Harris’ focus in documentary photography, which is to convey the human stories rather than facts behind a disaster. Harris did not travel to New Orleans to capture news, but rather to capture the gravity of the event from the victims’ perspectives. Influenced by photographer Robert Adams’ work, “Los Angeles Spring,” Harris said he was inspired by the idea of hope among complete ruins.
“What if I could, six months after the storm, show early signs of spring,” he said. “Wouldn’t that be extraordinary?”
He said the landscapes he encountered on his travels along the Gulf Coast were “so incredible and so awful” that they spurred his photographer instincts to capture and display the scenes. Some of his photographs feature ordinary objects, such as a child’s toy or a signed football.
“[I am] giving you a little piece of someone’s life that you can connect to and construct your own story out of, then stepping back to show it in context,” he said.
He added that these images remind viewers of their greatest fear—that things they love the most could vanish in a moment.
Harris also discussed how he tried to create order within the chaos by editing the photographs into triptych form, combing three photos to create one complete work. Unlike most disaster photographs that capture scenes of devastation, he aimed to create a more subtle portfolio by drawing the viewers away from the immediate drama of Katrina’s aftermath. He said he did not want the shock value of disaster images to cloud the viewers’ ability to empathize with the victims.
“If you’re covering something that is full of human suffering, maybe the way to approach this is with understatement, without any sentiment,” he said.
Harris called on his audience to explore what his pictures made them think and how his pictures made them feel. Freshman Zack Green said he learned that documentary photography is more than the photographer trying to convey a message through each image.
“It’s about the background and the foreground coming together as a powerful image, at the same time giving the viewers enough emotional space to let them feel something about it themselves,” he said.
In response to a question from a member of the audience, Harris said that rather than see differing interpretations of his work as a failure, he saw it as a victory.
Harris said he felt successful “if all individuals, each with different opinions, look at the photograph and produce a response, whether it is a thought or a feeling.”
He also expressed a desire for the Sanford School of Public Policy to personify issues while teaching policy making. The school currently offers several classes that aim to achieve this, he said.
“Making that connection between numbers on a report and the personal experiences of affected people is what makes [for] powerful policy,” Harris said.
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