Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2006 - (Page 25) Holly Beach, Cameron Parish, October 30, 2005 photograph. I wondered if I would be scared. I wondered if I would be depressed. I wondered about the purpose of my photographs. In California, where I live, I have never photographed the destruction of wildfires or earthquakes. Looking at a photograph of my grandfather’s store in Morganza, taken during the The Great Flood of 1927, I decided that recording an historical event was reason enough for me to make the trip. I have memories from many of the places damaged by Katrina and Rita. Childhood memories of summers spent in Biloxi, memories of soft-shell crabbing in the warm Gulf, of mixing syrup for soda at the Barq’s plant with my grandfather, and of my grandmother getting up for work at 4 a.m. when the Marvar shrimp-factory whistle blew. Childhood memories of driving in Audubon Park and seeing people waxing their cars in the shade of the oak trees, going to the Cabildo to see the submarine, riding the bumper cars at Pontchartrain Beach while the grownups had cocktails at the open-air restaurant. Memories of growing up in Lake Charles when Muller’s department store was open on Thursday nights and where my sister and I went on our birthdays to have our picture taken. Memories of building tree houses where we played Jean Lafitte. Memories of going down to Cameron to the Fur and Wildlife Festival in January and seeing the nutria-skinning contest on a flatbed truck. Memories of seeing hundreds of alligators in the Sabine Refuge on hot August days. On Little Chenier Road in Cameron Parish in December 2005, I met a man, James Deshotel, who still lives there amid the devastation. I gave him a photograph of his wharf with its neighboring oak tree. The photograph was taken in March 2004. Hurricane Rita took the wharf. Mr. Deshotel looked at the photograph and said, “That’s a happy memory.” After three trips and a couple hundred rolls of film, the words spoken by James Deshotel reminded me of the real reason for coming home. Memories were what had compelled me to come home to Louisiana. LCV Nell Campbell is a free lance photographer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. Spring 2006/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 25
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