Dave Anderson has photographed in tough places—a surviving Ku Klux Klan bastion in Texas, New Orlean’s post-Katrina Ninth Ward—but his photographs are rarely gritty. His Aperture monograph One Block, which documents the rebuilding efforts of one block of Ninth Ward residents, focuses less on the neighborhood’s despair and more on its hopes for renewal. Anderson knew that to photograph amidst such hardship he would have to tread lightly: “I was super-cognizant of ‘photographers fatigue’–people were sick of photographers showing up night and day and making grand promises,” he mentioned in a Color magazine profile. That Anderson spent time living and forming relationships with the residents he photographed is evident in the work—the subjects appear at ease, comfortable sharing their struggle to rebuild with Anderson and his lens.

Anderson produces videos as well as photographs—he is the man behind Oxford American’s SoLost web series, a video exploration of “the side roads, backrooms, cellars and psyche of the modern South,” which so far features 29 four-to-seven minute mini-documentaries on subjects ranging from a couple constructing a medieval castle in Arkansas, to Alabama menswear designer Billy Reid, to photographer William Eggleston. SoLost is a one-man operation, which accounts for the easy rapport between Anderson’s camera and his subjects, and why these videos feel like privileged glimpses into the richness and diversity of life in the American South.

Anderson will give a lecture about his image-making projects at The Center for Photography at Woodstock, this Friday, July 13 at 8pm. If you’re in the area, it will be worth checking out.

›› Watch a video of Anderson speaking about One Block with Aperture, and head to the Aperture store if you’re interested in purchasing a copy.

Photo by Stanley Greene

Those Who Fell Through the Cracks, a photography exhibition by Stanley Greene and Kadir van Lohuizen, will debut August 20th at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston before traveling from Texas to Louisiana. Stanley Greene, whose recent book Black Passport was published by Aperture this past Spring, worked in collaboration with Lohuizen documenting New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mural size prints from the project will be installed on the interior and exterior of a highly innovative 24′ itinerant truck. As the truck drives east from Houston, the photographs’ messages will be broadcast across the region, bringing awareness to a need for systemic change.

The exhibition’s opening in Houston is part of a series of events and exhibitions taking place throughout the city on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Other events include an August 21st talk with Stanley Greene and Kadir van Lohuizen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

As previously announced, an exhibition of photographs by Richard Misrach entitled After Katrina is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through October 31. The exhibition is accompanied by a book entitled Destroy This Memory, which will be published by Aperture this month.

Those Who Fell Through the Cracks
A mobile exhibition by Stanley Greene and Kadir van Lohuizen
On view at the Lawndale Art Center October 20 – 26

Lawndale Art Center
4912 Main Street
Houston, TX 77002

Click here to purchase Stanley Greene’s Black Passport

Click here to view Richard Misrach’s Destroy This Memory