The Colors of Katrina

More than two years later, it still stuns. The gravity of the situation in New Orleans can be revealed to us, brought back to the forefront of our thoughts, in any number of ways: an Anthony Bourdain special, a Spike Lee documentary, a newspaper series, an art exhibit. Yet, it never fails to punch us in the gut, to remind us of the suffering and loss experienced by those not any different than the rest of us…except maybe poorer, maybe more despondent. Hurricane Katrina fundamentally changed a lot of things in this country, and frankly, few subjects are as depressing. Photographer Dan Burkholder takes on the ruin and despair in his new exhibition The Color of Loss: An Intimate Portrait of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina with a nearly paradoxical point of view, using a digital photography technique called high dynamic range imaging. Burkholder's images are lush, bright and surreal treatments of a subject matter that is dark, bleak and disheartening. The prints end up almost portrait-like, but their subjects are not the jovial and rich—instead, he captures images of destroyed homes, schools and churches. The photographs play with architecture, color and the juxtaposition of ordinary objects in extraordinary places to recreate for all of us the true disaster at hand in New Orleans. But all is not gloom and doom—there is a hint of optimism in his work, and the exhibit itself benefits the much-lauded Common Ground charity. Burkholder's work will be on display at Sun to Moon Gallery, 3001 Keller Springs Road, beginning on Thursday and continuing Saturdays and Sundays through April 13. Visit suntomoon.com for more information.
Thu., March 27; Saturdays, 12-5 p.m.; Sun., March 30, 1-5 p.m. Starts: March 27. Continues through April 13, 2008