Debbie Fleming Caffery Portrait of Neglect: Injustice of Hurricane Katrina

University of Wyoming Art Museum, Spring 2007Educational Packet developed for grades K-12

Introduction

In this museum visit students will view the work of internationally respected fine art and documentary photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery. Her photographs capture the displaced residents of New Orleans, the destruction and neglect of the Ninth Ward, and artifacts left behind which result in a poignant view of the personal loss, grief, and devastation for those who lived through one of the United States’ worst natural disasters.

Debbie Fleming Caffery is known for her dark images and moving portraits. A New Orleans native, she received a Katrina Media Fellowship from the Open Society Institute Soros Foundation to photograph the aftermath of the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. For more than 30 years, Caffery’s keen eye and camera have explored the people and culture of Louisiana. From immigrant sugar cane field workers to alligator hunts and family portraits, she has exhibited extensively in the US. Among her highly praised publications are Polly (Twin Palms Press 2004) and Carry Me Home (Smithsonian 1990).

History

Debbie Fleming Caffery’s photos shot in black and white, are overly pictorial, yet psychological and sometimes darkly beautiful. Caffery’s images deal with what she calls “shades of mystery and shadow.” For Caffery, even bright daylight doesn’t dispel mystery. Most of the time Fleming Caffery deliberately blurs her pictures, for atmospheric effect, but sometimes she focuses them so sharply they become hyper-real. (Tucson Weekly: Arts, 2002)

Fleming Caffery is most comfortable in the shadows, drawn to movements, patterns and deep tonality. Caffery’s photography has garnered praise for over twenty years, and has been included in exhibitions from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D. C. to the Photo Gallery International, Tokyo. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the George Eastman House, Rochester; and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.

Before Debbie Fleming Caffery received the Katrina Media Fellowship in 2006, she received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for 2005. Her most recent book, Polly, chronicles her long friendship with a solitary and proud African-American woman in the sugar country of Louisiana.

“Both Polly Joseph and Debbie Fleming Caffery are women of Southern Louisiana and together they formed an intimate, isolated bond initiated by Photography and matured into an unlikely friendship.

Red Cross Reflections, Abbeville, LA, September 2005, Silver-gelatin print, 20 x 24 inches, 2/10,

Courtesy of Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA

The details of Polly’s life, present and past, became a collection of fables Caffery drank in like the dust-filled air and the deep, articulated shadows that surrounded them. Caffery’s photographs transmit mystery and truth through the story, body, and home of Polly: they are a collective portrait of unspeakable power.” (Trudy Wilner Stack: Debbie Fleming Caffery.com)

“You know when you become consumed with a project?” the photographer asks. “I went there (Polly’s cabin) so often and I thought about her so much - - I would dream about her. Going to Polly’s was like being vacuumed into a feeling of security and warmth. I would rather have gone to her house than any place during those years.”

This devotion is evident in the photographs, and it’s clearly returned by Polly, who opens herself to the camera with remarkable candor and spirit. So these are pictures about intimacy, not otherness – a record of a friendship and an artistic collaboration. (Vince A. Aletti, Village Voice)

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, fine art photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery found herself in the role of photojournalist, documenting the stories of those most affected.

Artist statement

I did not experience the first few days in New Orleans during the horrific flooding, as I was at the River Center Shelter in Baton Rouge photographing for People Magazine. The assignment was to do portraits of the evacuees and what they evacuated with. I worked with a writer from New York and we both were extremely upset in our quest for the story. We watched people being checked into the shelter, having to go through typical airport security machines and have their belongings checked by the National Guard. They were evacuated into a huge convention room lined with hundreds of cots. We talked to many people and I photographed few. We found that most of the people we met were evacuated from the flood waters of New Orleans and did not have any personal items with them. An elderly woman showed me the only personal item she brought with her besides the clothes on her back, was her dead husband’s drivers license. The few that were able to bring belongings with them brought their Bible, family pictures and family members. One kid told me he brought himself! . . .Each morning I say a prayer of thanks that the media was there to show the world the truth. (The Aftermath of Katrina, Debbie Fleming Caffery, January 6, 2006: Takegreatpictures.com)

Lesson Overview

Students will learn about the work of fine art photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery. They will explore the techniques used in telling stories with a camera. They will explore how you photograph live subjects, artifacts, and scenes in black and white. They will explore how you photograph scenes of people who have gone through and are going through a recent trauma: without food, shelter, water; the loss of home, all belongings, loving photos and personal treasures; relatives and friends; and not knowing how they will live and survive today and the next day.

Seventh Day of Hell, September 2005, Gelatin-silver print,

24 x 20 inches, 1/10, Courtesy of Arthur Roger Gallery,

New Orleans, LA

Students and teachers will consider the concepts behind the art work, and how the photos convey destruction, human loss and grief, survival, and the human spirit in action. They will explore ways of shooting photos with respect and compassion, yet, with honesty. They will explore how to use light and shadow, and photographic techniques. They will think about and discuss these things and the relationships needed to begin photographing human beings and artifacts in different situations and contexts.

In the Shelton Studio students may be given the opportunity to complete their own photographic statements; to use cameras in black and white film; to explore light and shadow; to explore shooting photos of human subjects, scenes and artifacts.

Students and teachers may research and engage in conversations about Debbie Fleming Caffery’s work before arriving at the art museum, using study guides (available on-line) to explore ideas. While at the art museum they will spend time in the galleries closely observing the work, discussing it, writing about it, and even sketching it. They will begin conversations about the theories behind the work which will lay the groundwork for future opportunities to pursue these ideas in their home classrooms and schools.

Essential QuestionsGrades K-6• Can photographs tell stories? How so?• How is a photograph different than a painting, installation or a sculpture?• How does a photograph convey thought?

• How does a photograph convey emotion?

Grades 6-12• What do you think a photograph can do artistically? Can it represent something invisible like an idea? • How can a photograph be considered or acknowledged as art?• How does a photograph convey a call to action, political, social, etc.?• How does a photograph show an artist’s style?

Art Questions to Consider

Grades K-6• Which of the photographs tells a story? What is the story?• Which of the photographs is your favorite? Why?• What ideas and feelings are you left with after observing these photographs closely?• Which of the photographs look the most realistic? Why?• Which of the photographs look the most unrealistic? Why?• How does the photographer use light and shadow?

Travis, Ninth Ward, November 2005, Silver-gelatin print, 20 x 24

inches, 3/10, Courtesy of Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA

We R Alive, Chalmette, LA Hurricane Katrina, November 2005, Silver-gelatin

print, 20 x 24 inches, Courtesy of Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA

• How does the photographer use perspective? Angles? Shapes?

Grades 6-12• How can a photographer manipulate images using film and using a digital format? What are the similarities and differences? • Some artists say film is the pure true art form and digital formatting is all manipulation? What do you think?• How does the manipulation of images affect a mood or change the perception of the viewer?• How does a photographer show texture in a photo?• What advantages and disadvantages does a photographer have when using black and white film? Color?

Pre-visit Activities

In order to prepare students for their museum visit and extend learning possibilities, we suggest that teachers and students consider the following activities.• Students will read and research about Debbie Fleming Caffery’s photographs and artistic accomplishments, awards, and life.• Students will research hurricanes, especially Hurricane Katrina: what causes them, when and where they appear, the social and economic impacts of hurricanes, and how we monitor them.• Students will read and research about photography, focusing on especially on black and white film.• Students will read and research the similarities and differences between a film and a digital format.• Students will consider and discuss what it would take to photograph people who have been in and are in traumatic situations. • Students will consider and discuss what it would take to photograph and show the destruction of a region and its artifacts.• Students will consider whether we have similar natural weather phenomena in Wyoming and what response they would have to such a storm, including how they would photograph it.

Museum Activities

Part 1 – Time frame: 45 minutes (minimum)• Students will closely observe the photographs of Debbie Fleming Caffery on exhibit in the art museum.• They will look at photographic techniques used in the shooting of this collection: perspective, contrast, light and shadow, black and white film, use of space and form.• Students will identify these techniques and discuss them.• Students will select a photo to write about and discuss, focusing on why they respond to the image they have selected and what their response is.• Students will discuss the relationship a photographer might have with his or her subject/s.• Using worksheets, students will respond in writing or drawing to the work they see by recording their observations and thoughts about the work.• Students will engage in discussions about their observations and their answers and sketches with one another and with the teachers.

Part 2 – Time frame: 45 minutes (minimum)

The following projects may be considered individually, or combined, or museum staff will work with

teachers to develop specific projects which support ongoing classroom work.• Students will explore, by using film, the different techniques to photograph another person in a situation and the situation itself, almost as if the scene and the artifacts are personified. • Students will create a collection of photos on a topic or subject to be determined by students and teachers, individually.• Students will be given time and instruction to photograph subjects using the different techniques which the museum’s artists have demonstrated for them.• Students will explore light and shadow, perspective, contrast, angles, shape and form in a variety of settings and various media.

Post-visit activities

We have found that students achieve maximum benefit from a museum visit when time is scheduled for post-visit activities. Here are some suggestions:• Students discuss or write about their museum experiences, reviewing what they learned, what has special meaning for them, how they will use new information and skills.• Students continue to research the work of fine art photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery (an essay, art work, research paper).• Students explore and practice photography in their home classrooms and schools.• Students develop an exhibit of photographs based on a concept they have selected and choose to photograph.• Students read about and explore other kinds of photography as art forms and research the work of other photographers.

Prerequisite skills/knowledge

Museum staff will work with teachers to ensure that all projects are age and skills appropriate. At the very minimum• Students should have some familiarity with shooting film.• Students should be able to manipulate a hand held camera.• Students should be able to distinguish between light and shadow, different geometric shapes, and understand the concepts of perception, perspective, angles, contrast, texture, black and white and color.

Suggested use in the curriculum

The study of Debbie Fleming Caffery’s, photographic exhibit, Portrait of Neglect: Injustice of Hurricane Katrina, plus the historical knowledge gained from studying Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, ties to multiple curricular areas including art, history, social studies, economics, writing, reading, science, photography, journalism, and debate. Museum staff will work with teachers to address specific Wyoming Teaching Standards and to align museum projects and studies with ongoing classroom curricular units.

Some recommended resources

These are just a few of the many resources available. We welcome other suggestions that teachers and students find helpful which can be added to this list.

• UW Art Museum website: www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum

• Exhibition descriptive materials (contact museum education program for more information, wbredeho@uwyo.edu)• Debbie Fleming Caffery Exhibition, Arthur Roger Gallery, 1998.• The Oxford Companion to the Photograph, Oxford Press, 2005.• The Shadows, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Twin Palms Press, 2002.• Polly, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Twin Palms Press, 2004.• Carry Me Home, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Smithsonian, 1998.• Photography and the Art of Seeing: A Visual Perception Workshop for Film and Digital Photographs, Freeman Patterson, Kelly Porter Books, 2004.• Art Photography Now, Susan Bright, Aperture, 2006.• Art and Photography, David Campany, Phaidon Press, 2007.

Materials to be supplied to each student

Materials for selected Shelton Studio projects are provided by the art museum.

Occasionally, teachers and students might be asked to bring materials with them to use for their art work. This will be agreed upon by museum staff together with the classroom teacher prior to the museum visit.

Assessments and documentation of museum tour and studio experiences

In order to ensure that our museum tour program is meeting the needs of teachers and students, we ask that participants complete evaluation surveys. Surveys will be distributed to teachers and students, but they are also available on-line as a pdf file to be downloaded, or they may be requested via e-mail (wbredeho@uwyo.edu).

1. Students will self-assess using a quick survey that asks them to consider their response to the gallery discussions and research, and their studio experience.2. Teachers will assess the overall visit by completing a quick survey that asks for their observation and assessment of students’ experiences, as well as assessment of the overall process of the museum visit. 3. Museum staff and artists/teachers will record their observations and assessments.4. When studio time permits, we will ask students to briefly discuss their art work completed in the Shelton Studio visit.5. Museum staff may take photographs of students and teachers to document the learning taking place and the work produced during a museum visit. These are available upon written request to teachers who would like to use them as part of teaching and student portfolios.