Photo exhibition at UCI commemorates 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

EVENT: “Blood in the Water: A Katrina Remembrance” is an exhibit of photographs taken shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, in particular New Orleans, in 2005. The photos are by Jon Hughes, photojournalist and professor of English & journalism at the University of Cincinnati, and are curated – with accompanying commentary – by New Orleans native Jonathan Alexander, professor of English at UCI.

WHEN/WHERE: 7 a.m.-midnight daily Sept. 18-Oct. 8 and 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Viewpoint Gallery in UCI’s Student Center (bldg. 113, grid E8 on campus map: https://communications.uci.edu/documents/pdf/UCI_14_map_campus_core.pdf)

INFORMATION: Parking is available for $10 in the Student Center Parking Structure, on the corner of West Peltason and Pereira drives. For more information about the exhibition, media interviews or group tours, contact Jonathan Alexander at jfalexan@uci.edu.

HIGHLIGHTS: A reception with Alexander and Hughes will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at the UCI Student Center’s Viewpoint Gallery.

BACKGROUND: Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding caused by insufficient levee systems deeply affected the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts and New Orleans. Alexander, originally from that city, has been writing about Katrina for nearly a decade, focusing on both media depictions of the hurricane and the South and his own memories of the event and its effects on his family.

Now, to mark the 10th anniversary of Katrina, he has curated some of Hughes’ photos for an exhibition. They capture the material and psychological toll of this catastrophe. A few of the images will also be published with a story Alexander has written for the Los Angeles Review of Books 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 of the exhibition are the School of Humanities, the Humanities Commons and Illuminations: The Chancellor’s Arts & Culture Initiative.

###
For UCI breaking news, visit wp.communications.uci.edu.