EVENT DETAILS

Photo exhibition, "Blood in the Water: A Katrina Remembrance"

EVENT: "BLOOD IN THE WATER: A Katrina Remembrance" is an exhibit of photographs taken shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coasts and the city of New Orleans. The photos are by Jon Hughes, photojournalist and McMicken Professor and Professor Emeritus, English & journalism at the University of Cincinnati, and are curated, with accompanying commentary, by Jonathan Alexander, professor of English at UCI.

HIGHLIGHT: Reception with Alexander and Hughes on Thursday, October 1, 2015, 4:00-6:00 p.m. at the UCI Student Center’s Viewpoint Gallery.

BACKGROUND: Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding caused by insufficient levee systems deeply impacted the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coasts and the city of New Orleans. Dr. Alexander, originally from New Orleans, has been writing about Katrina for nearly a decade, focusing both on media depictions of Katrina and the South, as well as his own memories of the storm, flooding, and their effects on his family. 
           
Photos in this exhibit were originally taken as part of a story that Alexander wrote about Katrina and published in Cincinnati’s City Beat, about a half year after the storm and flooding. Alexander traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana with photojournalist Jon Hughes, who took several pictures that accompanied Alexander’s original article. 

Now, to mark the tenth anniversary of Katrina, Alexander has curated some of Hughes’ photos for an exhibition. They depict the material and even psychological devastation of this natural and human catastrophe. Some of the pictures will also be published in a story that Alexander has written for the Los Angles Review of Books, a piece that offers his reflections on growing up in New Orleans, the storm, his father’s death in the days immediately after Katrina, and the importance of home.
                            
UCI co-sponsors include the UCI School of Humanities and Illuminations, the Chancellor’s Arts Initiative.

INFORMATION: For more information about the exhibition, media interviews, or tours for your group, please contact Dr. Jonathan Alexander at jfalexan@uci.edu.