This is what Hurricane Katrina did to well known local photographer John McCusker.
He wanted to die.
“You have to understand the depth of the horror that the city was,”
This is from the New York Times article (NYTimes reg req'd)
NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 9 — On the morning after Hurricane Katrina, when members of The Times-Picayune’s staff found themselves marooned in its flooded building here, John McCusker refused to join most of his colleagues in relocating to a remote newsroom in Baton Rouge.
After the building was evacuated, Mr. McCusker, a photographer for the paper, swam through muck while managing to keep his equipment dry and, from a kayak, captured some of the most harrowing images of the storm’s immediate aftermath. Then, for months, he lived the misery he had been photographing, having lost his possessions, his family’s home and his entire neighborhood to the hurricane.
On Tuesday, nearly a year after the storm, he seemed to snap.....read more
Please... if you're interested. I wanted to post all but it's quite long. It's a reminder really that people still are dealing with the mental grief and trauma hurricane Katrina brought to them. New Orleans residence still suffering from the tragedy.
In many instances like in strife torn places and countries were poverty is rampant, people suffer from the trauma of what they're going through.
I'm not a photographer but seeing and snapping photos of tragedy can really take it's toll and then one just snaps. Pulitzer-prize winner Kevin Carter of South Africa is an example. After seeing the famine in Sudan and snapping that now famous photo of vulture waiting to eat a child, he committed suicide. (Click here to see the photo).
Emotions and tragedy are potent mix. For some it's hard to disassociate themselves from the subject of their profession. It's hard not to get affected. Snapshots of tragedy specially, can trigger despairing feelings and then one just wants to end it all and just die to block it all out.
It's all sad.
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