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Different kinds of primary sources have the ability to offer distinct looks into the past. A diary entry can provide one person’s emotions and perspectives that may clue a historian into a pattern that existed across a certain faction of society. Advertisements offer suggestions about the interests of a particular demographic according to what the advertisement focuses on. Art is an interesting primary source in that it almost works as a visual diary through which the artist conveys a message. In the “State of Emergency” exhibit, the artists’ intentions seem to be grounded in eliciting an emotional response from the viewer. However, as historians, it is important to recognize these intentions and the emotions the artist is trying to convey in order to objectively analyze the works and their historical merit.
Robert Polidori’s photograph, 5417 Marigny Street, New Orleans, LA, is a great example how art can act as a primary source. The photo is of the inside of a home that was made uninhabitable by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In it you can see dirty dishes on the coffee table, bottles of Tabasco on the counter, and tattered furniture that will never be sat in again; it is the portrait of a life interrupted. It is for this reason that this photograph is distinct from images that flashed across the TV screens, or were plastered all over newspapers and magazines following the disaster. While those images are disturbing and emotional in their own right, Polidori is able to strike a different chord with his viewers by photographing the inside of this home. Images from within the home paint a more complete picture of the people who lived in it, and the life that was taken from them.
Sometimes there are weaknesses in a primary source’s ability to provide a historian with enough information to draw larger conclusions. This photograph however, does not necessarily fall victim to this tendency because although this is only a picture of one home, the viewer knows that there were thousands more pictures to be taken, just like this one. Perhaps the furniture would have been arranged differently, or a different book on the coffee table, but it would still portray an interrupted life. This realization can allow historians to begin to assess the social implications of a disaster like Hurricane Katrina, which are crucial to writing the history of a certain event. While written accounts are valuable in their own ways, works of art like Polidori’s photograph can enhance a historians understanding through heightening the emotional response of the viewer through personalization.
For all its merits as a historical primary source, a potential weakness of Polidori’s photograph is that he did not live through Hurricane Katrina himself. He is a photographer that was sent to New Orleans post-Katrina by the New York Times to photograph the destruction. In the case of this particular photograph, 5417 Marigny Street, there doesn’t seem to be any traces of personal bias, but the photographer’s background is important to note for the reason that it may have affect his approach to this assignment, or even to his photography in general. It forces us to examine the Polidori’s motivations, which may not be bad, but should be noted. Despite this potential shortcoming, however, I still contend that his photograph is ultimately successful in enhancing our understanding of the impact that Hurricane Katrina had on the people of New Orleans, and subsequently, the wider implications it had on the city of New Orleans—politically, economically, etc.