Blood, Sweat, and Tears:

Portraits of New Orleans Rebuilders and Residents

by Aubrey Edwards

It is a year after Katrina, and the streets of New Orleans are still amass with debris. The levees have yet to be fully rebuilt. Stop lights don't function. Abysmal holes in the street are covered with mattresses. The suicide rate has risen. Refrigerators filled with rotted food and maggots, litter the curbs. The National Guard is omnipresent and allowed to shoot at will. Charity hospitals have not reopened. Forms and paperwork still stand in the way of rebuilding, gutting and emotional counseling.

The scope of the devastation is something that photos can not do justice; these images can only give a glance through the keyhole of a struggling society. But, amidst the rubble, the toxic flood water, the gutted houses and the frustrating bureaucracy, there are fighters. As I've heard from so many, "if I made it through Katrina, I can make it through anything...we are blessed."

Ronald  Lewis

President of Big 9 Social Aid and Pleasure Club,  Mardi Gras indian Council Chief and member of Northside Skull and Bone Gang.  WIth the help of Project Locus, rebuilt his home in the Lower 9th Ward, and his backyard museum, House of Dance and Feathers, celebrating the Mardi Gras Indian.

L. Jeffrey Martorell

Actor.  Presently living in the Garden District in the home he grew up in.  When he returned he was the only person in the neighborhood, which was still without electricity.
In his own words: "You couldn't hear anything, there were no sounds."

Raymond

Resident of 9th Ward, age 8.
Swam through toxic flood waters with his brothers and sister to bring food and water to his pregnant mother.

Richard Moss

Carpenter.  Was homeless for a stint and lived in the woodmill, sleeping on the saw tables with his girlfriend.

Theodore Robert Rozier

Former Merchant Marine; Bartender in Jefferson Parish

Meaghan and Mary Buntin

Sisters; Cheerleader and University of New Orleans student.  Former residents of Lakeview, evacuated to Florida.  Their home was destroyed.

Mike Oncale

Resident of New Orleans East.  Mike's daughter, Renee, described him to me as this:
"He is a tanned, arthritic, flooded-out old Cajun that I believe would be representative of the hard-headed, good-hearted, rebuilding New Orleanian."

K-Tow

Gutter working with ACORN.

Website

http://www.aubreyedwards.com