Artist
Robert Polidori(American, born Montréal, 1951)American, born Montréal, 1951
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Industrial Canal Breach, Reynes Street, New Orleans, LA
Date2006
Place depictedNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 34 × 48 in. (86.4 × 121.9 cm)
Sheet: 40 × 54 in. (101.6 × 137.2 cm)
Sheet: 40 × 54 in. (101.6 × 137.2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred C. Glassell, Jr.
Object number2007.465
Not on view
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Department
PhotographyObject Type
arrived in New Orleans on September 19, 2005, three weeks after Hurricane
Katrina devastated the city. His initial assignment was to photograph the
aftermath of the hurricane. But realizing the magnitude and historical
importance of the event, Polidori stayed for seven weeks, creating a body of
work which he later published as a book titled, After the Flood. To Polidori, his sharply-focused large-format
photographs of the badly damaged city are portraits of violated habitats. He
wanted to create “a portrait of a city’s damaged and vacated exoskeleton” in
line with his other photographic projects from cities like Beirut, Lebanon, and
(post-) Chernobyl, Ukraine.
ProvenanceThe artist, New York; [Edwynn Houk Gallery]; purchased by MFAH, 2007.
Exhibition History"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Signed in ink on printed label on verso lower right: "Polidori"
Printed label with copy of the image on verso lower right: "INDUSTRIAL CANAL BREACH, REYNES STREET, / NEW ORLEANS, LA. 2006 / Fujicolor Crystal Archive print mounted to / Dibond, 40 x 54 inches. Printed from the / original negative under the photographer's direct / supervision. Print number 6 from a limited / edition of 10. Signed, dated, titled and editioned on label on verso. Illustrated: After the / Flood: (Göttingen: Steidl, 2006), page 12. / Provenance: Robert Polidori, New York"
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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