New Orleans was quite an eye opener according to Dever. "It was like being in a war
zone. Roofs were torn off of
houses, walls collapsed; everywhere you went was just a huge debris field.
One of the most depressing realizations that I had there, was that
all my images looked the same; just another pile of rubble that used to be
someone's life," Dever lamented.
Back home, Dever said he had similar feelings and was overwhelmed by the sheer number of destroyed and decaying houses and empty lots on the East Side. Anyone who has ever taken this "death and destruction tour" knows the feeling all too well of seeing the same thing over and over when, if fact, the obliteration of homes and once-vibrant neighborhoods goes on and on. As Dever's Relief Trip colleague said, "Right down to the spray paint on the houses used to mark them for demolition; it reminded us of the graffiti used by FEMA in New Orleans."
Dever said he'd seen the broken down areas of Buffalo through news and photos, but had never really experienced it firsthand. "We get stuck in our Delaware-Elmwood bubble. Then, with the distance running, we ran out of places and went far east and west." He says the new view of Buffalo gave him post traumatic stress flashbacks.
Still, he sees potential for rebuilding. "This show is about raising awareness. I purposely left people out of the Buffalo images of the East and West Sides because it might be too easy for viewers to cop out on the basis of race, but this is about a community with people from all backgrounds, and I'm trying to let the images tell the story. Imagine when there were kids in the yards and grandmas on the porches."
Dever has invited various organizations throughout the city to pitch people for help at the opening. His thought is that we can improve the city from within, saying, "People should want to do this because they're neighbors." As for the comparison between New Orleans and Buffalo, Dever points out that Katrina wiped out a community in 3 days, and that it probably took 3 decades for the shift of industry to impact Buffalo.
"It's a relative timeline, but I've known Buffalo for 4 or 5 years, and I see an upswing. We can reestablish ourselves as a great city. We're Portland 10 years ago. We have strong support for arts, music, the best architecture of an old boom city, and it's up to us to push forward bring ourselves back to the world scene."
It's no mistake that Dever chose the gallery on Grant to showcase his exhibit. "It's on the edge of part of world I shot in," he says. "People have an option of which way to go when they leave."
I talked with Clark about this show at the Indie Market Saturday (part of Buffalo Homecoming 2009/Citybration), and I'd say it's a must-see. Ironically, later in the day, after leaving an event on the east side and walking to catch the bus, I walked down a street which reminded me of this show -- including a porch which had fallen off and was in a pile in front of an abandoned house. This was next to the sidewalk where children were playing not far away. Sobering.