I created this piece as a freelance job for a local non-profit called Phoenix of New Orleans, Louisiana (PNOLA). PNOLA is an interesting group, because they are dedicated, specifically to cleaning and rebuilding the Tulane Gravier neighborhood in New Orleans. The Gravier was left devastated after Hurricane Katrina and is still trying to get back on its feet.

PNOLA asked me to make a short format, music video style, visual documentary piece for them to show the community what they were doing to help, but also to show America, how badly beaten many areas still are, even years after Katrina. My contact at PNOLA and I spent several days shooting relevant scenes throughout the neighborhood and visited a cleanup day with some of the volunteers. I edited this footage to the audio of their choice, which is an Outkast song, called The Hurricane.

This piece is relevant to much of my current and future work for a few reasons. I generally prefer to work in black and white or monochromatics, which I imagine will remain a theme for much of my work. When editing, however, I greatly prefer to cut to music and create music video style montages. What i enjoyed most about working on this project was that I was also helping to spread awareness about the post Katrina climate New Orleans, through my art.