Purchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art
John Rosenthal is a Chapel Hill-based photographer and essayist. His photographs explore the interactions between landscape, humanity, and the passage of time. Ultimately, his images represent loss and what it feels like to lose something important: a person, a place, or a way of life.
In 2007 Rosenthal traveled to the Lower Ninth Ward, a primarily African American working-class neighborhood in New Orleans, to document the devastating damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. His photographs of the Lower Ninth Ward preserve the memory of the neighborhood and challenge stereotypes of poverty and crime in the area.
Although most of Rosenthal’s earlier photographs are in black and white, his series of 44 photographs of the Lower Ninth Ward is in color. According to the artist, the use of color captures the liveliness of the community despite its economic challenges. Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans, LA, Church of the Living God II shows a church organ damaged by floodwater and covered in cracked silt. The low lighting emphasizes the tragedy that took place, yet the vibrant image also shows that beauty can be found within the darkness.
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