Jan 06, 2006
Local Photographer Captures Aftermath Of Gulf Coast Hurricane Devastation In Exhibition Opening At DePaul
Jane Fulton Alt, a Chicago clinical social worker, provided disaster relief in New Orleans last November, and after work each day took her camera back into the devastated areas she had visited. The result is an exhibition of hauntingly beautiful images, “Look and Leave: New Orleans in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina,” that opens at the DePaul Art Museum, 2350 N. Kenmore Ave., Jan. 16 and runs through March 2.
Alt spent time in the Gulf region working as a disaster relief counselor in the “Look and Leave” program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She assisted residents of New Orleans’ lower Ninth Ward who were returning to their homes for the first time. Alt, who trained as a fine art photographer at the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College, said she felt compelled to document the landscape of devastation and loss left behind by Katrina, but was careful not to intrude on residents’ privacy.
Her images of personal items, such as a single shoe, family photos or footprints etched in mud, are poignant reminders of the individual losses that people of the region suffered. Alt’s photos include public structures as well, such as a stately white-washed church with its toppled steeple resting against one wall.
“These images are my attempt to describe what I saw,” said Alt, who characterizes the multitude and complexity of the problems of returning residents as “overwhelming.”
“As public interest has waned, the media has pulled back. Americans have moved on to ‘other news,’ and some have forgotten what happened in the South,” Alt said. “Hopefully, these images will ensure that the survivors will not be forgotten.”
“The photos allow us to make a powerful connection with the residents of New Orleans,” said Louise Lincoln, executive director of DePaul’s Art Museum. “Even though Alt has shown sensitivity by not including human subjects in the images, we nevertheless can place ourselves in their shoes, returning home when home has been transformed forever by the storm.”The DePaul Art Museum is free and open to the public. Museum hours are: Mon. through Thurs., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. For more information about “Look and Leave: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina” or future exhibitions of the DePaul Art Museum, call 773/325-7506 or visit the Web site at museums.depaul.edu/artwebsite .
Editors’ Note: J-PEG images from “Look and Leave” are available upon request.