Before During After Opens at LSM on February 17

Solomon by Frank Relle

Before During After, a collection of extraordinary images illustrating the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the vision and work of 12 Louisiana photographers, opens February 17 at the Louisiana State Museum’s Presbytere on Jackson Square.

Scheduled to run through August 31, the show compliments the Museum’s new $7.5 million permanent exhibition Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, also at the Presbytere.

“Louisiana’s recovery from the 2005 storms has been marked by a spirit of creativity and resilience,” said Tony Lewis, Louisiana State Museum Curator of Visual Arts. “The artists represented in Before During After saw what happened here, captured it vividly, and were forever changed by the experience.”

Lewis served as co-curator with Diane Barber of DiverseWorks in Houston, where Before During After premiered last September.

Samuel Portera

Selected for the Presbytere show are 38 large-format photographic prints – in both color and black and white – paired with personal artist’s statements documenting changes in subject matter, media and technique before and after the storms.

Participating photographers include Eric Julian, Elizabeth Kleinveld, Rowan Metzner, David Rae Morris, Thomas Neff, Samuel Portera, Frank Relle, Jennifer Shaw, Mark Sindler, Zack Smith, Jonathan Traviesa, and Lori Waselchuk.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 124-page book of the same title (University of New Orleans Press, $24.95) featuring essays and commentary.

Sponsored by Royal Haskoning, the Dutch engineering firm with offices in New Orleans, Before During After opens with a reception Thursday, February 17, at 6:00 PM The event is free and open to the public.

The Presbytere is open daily (except Mondays and major holidays) from 10 AM to 4:30 PM. Admission is $6 for adults, children under 12 free.

Waterline by Lori Waselchuk

Founded in 1906 with a mission to collect, preserve, interpret and present the state’s rich history and diverse cultures, the Louisiana State Museum’s collection totals more than 450,000 artifacts and works of art. These provide an authentic experience of Louisiana to visitors from around the world while enhancing the quality of life for residents. The Museum is an agency of the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, headed by Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne.

Elizabeth Kleinveld Interview

An interview with Elizabeth Kleinveld, the force behind Before During After, for OffBeat Magazine: Behind “Before During After”

BDA's European Premier: GRID 2010

BEFORE DURING AFTER made its European debut during Amsterdam's Photo Biennale, GRID2010. The exhibition opened on Saturday, October 2, 2010 as the official United States entry for the 4th International Photography Biennial.  

GRID 2010, featuring photo exhibitions throughout the Amsterdam metropolitan area's museums and galleries, took place from September 25 until November 7, 2010 and is estimated to have attracted 400,000 visitors from all over the world.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Boekhandel Van Rossum hosted a book signing on September 29, featuring a presentation by Paul Cliteur on how the book developed and why it is important, five years after the storm. The event also included a discussion with project director Elizabeth Kleinveld and featured photographer Eric Paul Julien.

Blog Critics: Book Review

by Bob Etier for Blog Critics
September 15, 2010

Book Review: Before (During) After: Louisiana Photographers' Visual Reactions to Hurricane Katrina, Edited by Elizabeth Kleinveld

Excerpt:

Before (During) After is an elegant collection of photographs from that awful time. Twelve photographers contributed photos and essays... Their photographs are a melancholy record of both the damages (some small, some enormous) and their own feelings and experiences. Rowan Metzner’s picture of a fish slammed up against a screen and a green watering can that landed in a tree sum up the turmoil.

Volumes are spoken by Lori Waselchuk’s photo of a cooler next to a hole cut through a roof. The effect of all these portraits, still lifes, and landscapes is an understanding of the human experience and loss.

Read the entire review here.

Before During After Featured In Shelf Unbound

Before During After was the cover feature of Shelf Unbound's December 2010 issue. The article includes several full spreads from the book and an accompanying essay by contributor John Biguenet.

An online preview of the magazine is available here.

Shelf Unbound is a monthly book review magazine featuring the best of small press, university press, and self-published books. Each issue features reviews, excerpts, author interviews, photo essays, and more.

For a complimentary copy of this issue, you can e-mail publisher Caroline Jordan at caroline@shelfmediagroup.com

BDA Earns Mention In Poets & Writers

Before During After was included in the article, Literary New Orleans, Post-Katrina, written by Nicole Cooley and published in the July/August 2010 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Excerpt:
Fiction writer, translator, and playwright John Biguenet articulates this dilemma in an essay he wrote for Before During After, a collection edited by Elizabeth Kleinveld, forthcoming later this year from the University of New Orleans Press. “What conventions exist to depict something that has never happened before?” he writes. “What American novel traces the eradication of one of our cities, the exile of two hundred thousand citizens, the obliteration of a set of intertwined cultures centuries old?...We are only now just beginning to discover what it’s done to us.”

Read the full article here.

Independent Weekly: BDA Among Noteworthy K+5 Titles

Before During After was included in Katrina, Remembered, Mary Tutwiler's review of five noteworthy new books and documentaries that recall the storm and its aftermath. Published on August 18, 2010, in Lafayette's Independent Weekly.