Art can come in every shape, size, and variety. That is why art can surprise you with where it pops up. Like a playground, art is alive within the swings, and the slides, and the graffiti, but also in the weeds popping up in between cracks in the pavement. There are many facets of art that we are so ingrained in the landscape of our daily lives, that we never learn to appreciate the beauty, and the refuge, that they hold for us.

If photography can be viewed as a catastrophe, then each of Thomas Neff's pictures was a tremor. Each picture hit us with the humanity--or lack there of, of the stories that followed Hurricane Katrina. Each image struck us, shook us, and rattled our bones with the sobering images of the struggling, and forsaken people of the city of New Orleans. These pictures were particularly meaningful for me because of my own experiences with hurricane relief in the city--and the many storied i heard and the people i met that were reflected in the eyes of every single one of his subjects.

Thursday’s Meet the Artist event at the MHC was more than I expected it to be. It started as a usual symposium: a guest speaker, a power point presentation, and a public. This time, the combination of the three composed an unforgettable sensation. Topic of the speech: Surviving Katrina; a subject many of us seem to forget about. A terrible hurricane that hit New Orleans in 2005 still causes misfortune for many habitants in that area.

  I will be the first to admit that Hurricane Katrina never peaked much interest in me. Whether I didn’t understand what had actually happened, or whether I sought ignorance I cannot say. Last night, however, Thomas Neff, introduced me to this devastating disaster. Neff opened his presentation by defining his role as a photographer. He described himself as a photographic documentologist capturing history in the making.