A house destroyed. A business in ruins. A million photographs under water.Despite the devastation, one man spent months in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina documenting his experience through his artwork.Donn Young, photographer and New Orleans resident, traveled through the debris and stagnant water taking pictures of the destruction, the Louisiana Superdome and New Orleans residents after Katrina.”That’s what I do as a journalist,” Young said. “It almost became necessary for me to do it.”Young, who presented his photographs in Hill Memorial Library on Thursday evening, wanted people never to forget the effect Katrina had on New Orleanians.Faye Phillips, associate dean of libraries, said she hopes Young’s photographs keep people from forgetting the effect Katrina had.”It was sort of cathartic,” he said. “But it helped me get through it.”Young said he was one of only a few journalists who covered the story of New Orleans while living the same destruction.”I would work hard all day, and when it was time to go home — I had no place to go to,” Young said. Young wanted his photographs to convey a message of “civilization” — both the destruction and the reconstruction.A picture of a young boy named Cody, who Young calls the metaphor for everyone affected by Katrina, was the epitome of his message.A 10-year-old boy who was abandoned by his mother at an evacuation shelter, Cody was saved by an order of Catholic nuns called The Sisters of Sorrow.Young said all New Orleanians share a “collective conscience” — all of which were conveyed through this young autistic child.He said everyone affected became homeless, displaced and left without a clear vision of the future.Young said Cody’s story ended with what everyone in New Orleans longed for — shelter, food, love and a secure future.”Flashings of happenings,” he said.That’s all Young remembered from his experience in post-Katrina New Orleans.”My sincerest, deepest feelings were with those feeling what I was feeling,” Young said.Seeing images of what only people in New Orleans saw after Katrina, Young said he no longer shelters himself, but rather wears his heart on his sleeve.Elaine Smyth, head of special collections at Hill Memorial Library, said she was grateful to Young for presenting his work.”I know from comments people have left that it meant a lot to them,” she said. “I’m really glad he did a lot of documentation after Katrina. He’s out there telling a story.”Young, who is a “Yankee” by birth, said he has lived in New Orleans since 1980.”I think I’ve earned my New Orleans card,” he joked.Young’s photographs will be on display in the main gallery of Hill Memorial Library until Nov. 8.His photographs, along with hundreds of other Louisiana artists, will be compiled as part of a state archive.—-Contact J.J. Alcantara at [email protected]