Behind the Fundraiser

I visited New Orleans for the first time this past February. I was invited to document the efforts of some volunteers, accompanying a group of high school students from the Beacon School in NYC. While there, I witnessed the devastation and destruction that Katrina left in it’s path. The impact of seeing these conditions in person, of complete neighborhoods torn apart and abandoned, was chilling. I met people throughout the city, particularly the residents and volunteers working together to rebuild the Lower 9th Ward. Since my return I have been in the process of organizing a fundraiser, featuring photographs of New Orleans, by many well known and established NY artists, due to show at the Union Gallery in the Tribeca neighborhood of NYC on December 4th. The photographs will be sold to the highest bidders, through a silent auction, with all proceeds going to lowernine.org. They are a non-profit group that has based itself there in the neighborhood, working hand and hand with home-owners and residents of the community. The volunteers are working hard and quickly to clean homes (from mold etc.), rewire and rebuild to get people back in, mowing lawns (to show that these homes are not abandoned by choice), hanging the street signs that have not been replaced since the storm, and much more. They are people that have come from all over the country to make a difference where others have left off.

-Orrie King (photographer and curator)