09/05/09 Jacquelyn Nelson Thomas Neff Photography

This past Thursday Stephanie and I went to the lecture of Thomas Neff, a landscape, people, and street photographer. His work was very moving. In the first part of his lecture, he showed us pictures from his new book Holding Out And Hanging On Surviving Hurricane Katrina. When the hurricane hit, Neff put his life on hold and was one of the first to arrive in New Orleans volunteering his service to the victims that decided to stay. He lovingly helped so many people and in the process he became better acquainted with them. Neff listened to these people while they shared with him their heartbreaking stories. He created this book with photographs of most of the people that he met and publishing their stories in it. In all his pictures from Hurricane Katrina, he truly captured the pain, hurt, and suffering of the people of Louisiana. Following the Katrina photos, Neff showed us pictures from his travels in Japan and China. Although I didn’t care for some of them, he still had some very beautiful landscape pictures. He commented on how the print quality was greater in person, which is always true, so Stephanie and I decided to attend his gallery opening that night in the UTSA gallery. When I saw his photos in person, my opinion changed, and I thought they were all successful. I especially liked the subjects in his street photography. Before we left, we had a chance to speak to Neff, which gave us a better insight into his composition and a deeper understanding to why he decided to take these photographs. I admire his wonderful print quality, and his friendly, outgoing nature, which is reflected in his work.