Battle Ground Baptist Church, 2200 Flood Street, New Orleans, Summer 2007. © Stanley Greene / NOOR

Photographer Stanley Greene remembers:

I was just in New Orleans and had a moment to return to the Lower Ninth where I photographed the destroyed flag in the Battle Ground Baptist Church. The church was originally located in Fazendeville, a small African-American community that thrived in St. Bernard Parish from 1867 to 1964.  Fazendeville occupied the site of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. Among its many functions, Battle Ground Baptist Church served as performance space and community hall. When the neighborhood was razed in 1964, the church’s pastor, Reverend Allen Thomas, relocated Battle Ground Baptist Church to Flood Street in the Lower Ninth Ward. Much of the congregation followed, making the church the center of the displaced Fazendeville community.

The Battle Ground Baptist Church was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and left abandoned for many years afterwards. The image of the destroyed flag was taken in the summer of 2007 and since then, the church remains have been razed to the ground, and the residents of the neighborhood were all scattered by Hurricane Katrina and the floods that followed.

When I took this picture of the American flag inside the church, it was the only thing left standing, like a flag one would find on a field of battle. This takes on special significance when considering that the church had stood on the site of the Battle of New Orleans. When looking at the photograph, it almost says “defeated for now but not broken,” which is what you can say about the people of the Lower Ninth.

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In the five years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees broke, residents have developed innovative approaches to tackling some of the city’s—and the nation’s—most persistent problems: criminal justice reform, unresponsive government, and racial and economic inequality. In recognition of these efforts, during the month of August the Open Society Blog shines a light on people and organizations in New Orleans bringing change from within one of the country’s most important cities. Read more posts in this series.

I asked photographers who received fellowships to reflect back on some of their images and describe how life has changed for the people and places they photographed. The following are some of their stories. Read more stories in Part 1 of this series.

Joseph Rodriguez

Lorenzo Ford, Denton, Texas, November 2005. © Joseph Rodriguez

Lorenzo Ford, 43, a social worker and former director of a New Orleans homeless shelter, was among hundreds of evacuees who found refuge in Denton, TX when Hurricane Katrina struck. In this photo, taken at his home in Dallas, Lorenzo expressed how much he wished to go back to New Orleans, but feared he wouldn’t be able to afford to live and work there. In 2008, Lorenzo was diagnosed with cancer. Currently, he lives on disability, still in Dallas, awaiting approval for public housing in New Orleans. After six more months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, he hopes to be cancer free.

MAAS meeting, Denton, Texas, November 2005. © Joseph Rodriguez

This photograph shows displaced residents more than two months after arriving in Denton. This image was taken during a meeting with the non-profit group MASS, Mothers and Fathers for the Advancement of Social Systems. Fatigue lines the faces of dozens of adults who have learned that federal assistance will be ending soon.

In the aftermath of Katrina, MASS was working with evacuees to help them chart their futures in an unfamiliar state. Currently, the organization itself faces a significant lack of funding and has had to lay off all the office workers. MASS now relies solely on volunteers to continue offering services and access to education, employment, and housing for families and individuals coming out of prison.

Joseph Rodriguez is a New York-based freelance photojournalist whose work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Marie Claire, GQ, Jane, Ebony, Mother Jones, Newsweek, American Photo, B&W, and Stern. For his Katrina Media Fellowship project, Rodriguez created an extensive body of photographs of people affected by the hurricane and floods. See more images from Joseph Rodriguez’s Katrina Media Fellowship project.

Shawn Walker

Dance umbrella, New Orleans, Louisiana. © Shawn Walker

One of my interests was in the levees that had failed and allowed New Orleans to be so totally flooded. Not familiar with what they were or how they were supposed to work, I had someone take me to an area where they were being repaired. The naked face of the city--which sits below sea level--was impressive viewed from the perspective of all the damage around me.

Much of the repair work has been done. The Times Picayune reported this July that 380 miles of levees, floodwalls and gates have been completed, costing $1.1 billion so far with another $5.8 billion of work left. While most people, including the Army Corps of Engineers, feel that the system is stronger and more resilient than ever, others have raised concerns that the new system will be unable to protect the New Orleans area from future storms.

Shawn Walker is a New York-based photographer whose work is exhibited and collected by major institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. He is a member of Kamoinge, an African American photographers' collective. For his Katrina Media Fellowship project, Walker documented the new urban landscape New Orleans residents were left with after the flood waters subsided.  See more images from Shawn Walker's Katrina Media Fellowship project.

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In the five years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees broke, residents have developed innovative approaches to tackling some of the city’s—and the nation’s—most persistent problems: criminal justice reform, unresponsive government, and racial and economic inequality.  In recognition of these efforts, during the month of August the Open Society Blog shines a light on people and organizations in New Orleans bringing change from within one of the country’s most important cities. Read more posts in this series.

I asked photographers who received fellowships to reflect back on some of their images and describe how life has changed for the people and places they photographed.  The following are some of their stories. Read more stories in Part 2 of this series.

Collette Fournier

Ann Gaines, New Orleans East, Louisiana. ©Collette V. Fournier.

This image shows Ann Gaines, a tax advisor, in front of the foundation of her home on Lurline Street in New Orleans East. Her house and car were submerged under ten feet of water. The water damage and resulting mold were so bad that Ann chose to have her home razed.

Ann and her husband Darryl, a nurse, now live in Lake Charles, LA, about 200 miles from New Orleans.  They still own the property in New Orleans East, but received such a low estimate from The Road Home Program that they could not afford to rebuild their house. The Gaines had been paying someone to maintain the property in New Orleans East, but they recently learned that the person was neglecting the property.

Girard Mouton, New Orleans, Louisiana. ©Collette V. Fournier.

When Katrina hit, Girard Mouton and his family relocated to Arkansas to live with cousins. I took this photograph eighteen months after Hurricane Katrina. Girard, a professional photographer working at Target, was checking on his mother's property on Buchanan Street in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. When Katrina hit, Girard’s own house on Press Drive was submerged under eight feet of water. Following the storm and floods, he was determined to reconstruct both houses, but every day he had to battle against government policies that prevented him from rebuilding his two homes.

The state now owns his mother's house and was going to offer her property for sale through the NORA or Road Home Program. Sadly, his mother, a retired educator in the New Orleans school district, passed away in December 2007.

Girard demolished his Press Drive property in November 2007. He hopes to begin new construction in 2011.  Like many, he was dissatisfied with the devalued appraisal of his house by The Road Home program. He is immensely frustrated by the process and feels that everyone was shortchanged.

Collette V. Fournier is an award-winning New York-based photographer whose work has been published and exhibited widely and is included in a number of museum collections, such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She is a member of Kamoinge, a collective of African American photographers. For her Katrina Media Fellowship project, Fournier photographed people and homes in several New Orleans neighborhoods, including the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East, Gentilly, and Algiers.  See more images from Collette Fournier’s Katrina Media Fellowship project.

Kadir van Lohuizen

Olevia Polk, Fort Smith, Arkansas, April 2008. ©Kadir van Lohuizen.

Kadir van Lohuizen quotes Olevia Polk:

I am the grandmother of Joyce Herring and the great grandmother of Lesly Berzat. I was born in Thibodaux, Louisiana in 1906. As a young girl, I worked on the sugarcane plantations. When Katrina came, I was living in the Calliope Projects in New Orleans. I lived on the 3rd floor. The water came higher and higher. Nobody came to rescue us. In the end, the children managed to find an inflatable swimming pool and pushed me to the ramp of the highway. A bus came and brought me to the Convention Center and after that I was brought to an elderly home in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I had no idea where I was; I was the only person from New Orleans. The last time I saw the family was that morning, on the ramp, in New Orleans. After three years, this is the first time I am seeing somebody from the family; Lesly is visiting me.

Olevia Polk passed away on May 1, 2010. She was 104 years old.

Kadir van Lohuizen is an internationally recognized professional freelance photojournalist and a founding member of Noor photo agency. For his Katrina Media Fellowship project, van Lohuizen captured the life and landscape of New Orleans in the two years following the storm, and followed displaced residents living in Houston as they struggled to rebuild their lives.  See more images from Kadir van Lohuizen’s Katrina Media Fellowship project.

We'll be adding more photos in this series next week.

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In the five years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees broke, residents have developed innovative approaches to tackling some of the city’s—and the nation’s—most persistent problems: criminal justice reform, unresponsive government, and racial and economic inequality.  In recognition of these efforts, during the month of August the Open Society Blog shines a light on people and organizations in New Orleans bringing change from within one of the country’s most important cities.  Read more posts in this series.