In Katrina's Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster
by Bill McKibben, Chris Jordan (Photographer), Susan Zakin
On This Page
Description
While many may argue whether the devastation of hurricane Katrina was the direct or indirect result of global warming, infrastructural neglect, inadequate preparation, or an incompetent governmental response, nobody will deny the heartbreak it wrought, the homes, businesses, and history washed away, the landscape uprooted, or the lives lost. Renowned photographer Chris Jordan went on assignmenthis ownto capture the tragedy of the aftermath of this, the greatest natural disaster in the show more history of the United States.In Katrina's Wake, his series of 50 photographs, layer, the horror of ruin with the uncanny beauty of nature, even in its most savage incarnation. His images show how the remnants of a placefrom Mardi Gras beads to church pews, from computer stations to swing setsrecall the essence of a place. Essays by Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Royte, and Susan Zakin explore the causes and effects of global warming, noting that we are all responsible for the future of our planet. A portion of the proļ¬ts from the sale of this book will be donated to organizations dedicated to rebuilding New Orleans. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Large format images from after the storm. Jordan's got a sensitive, judicious eye. Some of the images seem unreal, as though they were photographed on some other planet. Skip the text.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information

50+ Works 6,702 Members
Bill McKibben grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. He was president of the Harvard Crimson newspaper in college. Immediately after college he joined the New Yorker magazine as a staff writer, and wrote much of the "Talk of the Town" column from 1982 to early 1987. After quitting this job, he soon moved to the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New show more York. His first book, The End of Nature, was published in 1989 by Random House after being serialized in the New Yorker. It is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has been printed in more than 20 languages. Several editions have come out in the United States, including an updated version published in 2006. His next book, The Age of Missing Information, was published in 1992. It is an account of an experiment: McKibben collected everything that came across the 100 channels of cable tv on the Fairfax, Virginia system (at the time among the nation's largest) for a single day. He spent a year watching the 2,400 hours of videotape, and then compared it to a day spent on the mountaintop near his home. This book has been widely used in colleges and high schools, and was reissued in 2006. McKibben's latest book is entitled, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Bill currently resides with his wife, writer Sue Halpern, and his daughter, Sophie in Ripton, Vermont. He is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College. 030 (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Chris Jordan is Assistant Professor of Communication at the Pennsylvania State University.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 39
- Popularity
- 749,443
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.88)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1






















































