Check out this video about my friend Lolita's quest for her family photographs.
(DDFRtv visits Lolita Parker Jr @ Boston from Digital Diaspora Family Reunion on Vimeo.)
What the video does not fully explain is that Lolita is herself a professional photographer. Though we're both from Boston, I met Lolita in Turkey Creek, MS at Derrick Evans' place in January 2006 (see previous post). It is therefore especially moving at the end of this video when Lolita unexpectedly brings up being in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. When I interviewed Katrina survivors in Mississippi (PDF), back when I met Lolita in 2006, lost and damaged photos were a common theme.
I owe a lot to Lolita, who recently reminded me that it was five years ago in last month that we met. From her prodding me to put my then never-exhibited photos in a show she was curating, to her thrusting her camera into my hand and sending me into the crowd at Wally's to shoot, to her stories about how photos of hers came about, to our long conversations about family and history---she's been an important friend and teacher.
This photo, of a family diptych found on the foundation slab of a house obliterated by Hurricane Katrina in Bay St. Louis, MS, was one of the ones that Lolita insisted I include in her show back in 2006.
Photo by Ben Greenberg
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