The Louisiana Art and Science Museum’s newest photography exhibit chronicles the devastation of last summer’s floods.

With the help of local photographers, “Faces of the Flood” aims to capture the plight of community members who lost everything in the disaster and the difficult return to normalcy that followed.

The exhibition features portraits set in the gutted homes and inundated neighborhoods of its subjects. As the flood’s one year anniversary approaches, photos will be presented along with personal accounts, videos and newspaper articles to retell and reflect on the events of August 2016.

When flood waters began to subside last year, lead photographer Collin Richie set out to detail the valiant efforts of the Cajun Navy as an assignment for local publication inRegister Magazine. Instead, he found whole neighborhoods already gutting houses, handing out supplies, and struggling to start over.

After hearing their stories, Richie took many of the photos that make up the “Faces of the Flood” exhibition. Soon he was enlisting the help of other local photographers to sustain the project.

“You kind of feel a debt to the people you’re photographing to continue telling their stories,” Richie said. 

Richie began documenting the flood’s aftermath on a Facebook page called “Humans of the Water.” There, he and his colleagues posted intimate portraits of people during their most vulnerable moments.

“It’s a very personal moment in someone’s life,” Richie said. “You see the totality of the loss. I think a lot of people enjoyed taking a break from what they were doing to talk,” he said.
One photograph shows two siblings standing in their gutted family home, surrounded by chunks of drywall and exposed support beams. Another pictures a father and his daughter next to an aluminum skiff on the flooded front lawn.

“I remember all of them honestly,” Richie said. “When you actually get to sit down and talk to people, you can see the innate good in everyone regardless of creed, gender or religion.”

Richie has been taking photos in Baton Rouge for over a decade.

Richie said the assignment was about connecting with people in crisis as much as it was about taking photos.

Frank McMains is another seasoned camera man with over a decade’s worth of experience. When the rain finally stopped, he took the streets offering supplies, assistance and professional portraits.

“I felt pretty strongly that I didn’t want to just be out photographing,” McMains  said.

An environmental and cultural photographer by trade, McMains said he hopes his contribution to the exhibit also sparks a dialogue about the state’s damaged ecosystem. With south Louisiana in poor environmental shape, McMains (McMains) said photographs can inspire action and change in the community.

The Louisiana Art and Science Museum will host “Faces of the Flood” until Sept. 3.