My First Documentary Family Award!
Something that I’ve wanted for the last three years is for my art to appear in the Documentary Family Awards. It would be such an honor just to have one of my photos appear alongside the stunning work of so many talented photographers around the world. The Fall 2021 submissions were judged this week and not only did one of my photos make it to the final round, it won an Honorable Mention award! Having my visual storytelling recognized this way is both humbling and gratifying. I am thrilled and still a bit in shock; I was certainly hoping, but not expecting, to be at this point so soon. I also received some priceless feedback from the judges’ critique, which I will be pouring into my work. Thank you, Documentary Family Awards for starting my year out on a high note!
The photo that won the award is a late night self-portrait that I made while bailing water out of my basement during Hurricane Ida. Below is the story behind the photo as well as an important story of injustice that I learned about from W. Kamau Bell.
After some satisfactory peeks into the basement earlier in the night, the water from Ida began to rise in our basement, unbeknownst to me or my husband. Just before heading upstairs to go to bed, I had a feeling that I should check one more time. I rounded the corner down the basement stairs and…..froze…..as a shoe floated by. Our (mostly carpeted) basement had at least 5 inches of water covering the entire floor. I don’t think I’ve ever been so speechless. We grabbed the nearest containers and began bailing water into the utility sink. After about 20 minutes, I thought to myself “I need to be photographing this!” it was too absurd and vulnerable of a situation not to. I placed my camera on the boiler, took an educated guess with my focus point, set the timer, and went back to work. It was a lesson to trust my instincts and it paid off!
I would like to take a moment to draw attention to hardships besides our own. While we were situated to fully recover from our very personal encounter with climate change, that is not the case for millions of Americans who are suffering from the impacts of climate change and environmental racism. Did you know that after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans forced thousands of public housing residents to evacuate their mostly undamaged homes and while the buildings were vacant the city demolished them? Those homes were replaced with “mixed-income” buildings that made the units financially unattainable to the residents that previously lived on those lots. Acts of injustice are happening in your town too – take a compassionate look around and get involved any way that you are able.
