Art Evaluation/Critique

Unknown location on the 800 block of North Robertson Street. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 2005-06 - Robert Polidori

The chromogenic photograph displayed above was taken by Robert Polidori in January of 2006. While the specific location is unknown, Polidori entitles this piece of art North Robertson Street, which is located in New Orleans. The medium can be defined as a chromogenic print with the approximate dimensions of 86.4 x 121.9 cm (34 x 48 in.)

The first thing one will notice about the photograph/printing is that it is a 3-dimensional view of a room in a rathe chaotic state. The roof is either unfinished or has fallen in. The wallpaper has begun to unravel and fall down as well. In addition there are a numerous chairs and other broken items all on around the floor. Even the pictures that remain on the wall appear to be damaged, crooked and defaced.

Given the time the photograph was taken and the chaotic state of the room, one can draw the conclusion that this was taken post Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans at the end of August. Polidori then moved to New Orleans to shoot photographs of the devastation for The New Yorker. He stayed longer than first planned, then went back and forth for weeks, taking hundreds of pictures with a large-format camera that produced wide detailed color photographs.

This particular photograph depicts the devastation that nature caused on the people of New Orleans. While there are no people in the photograph, it is quite clear that this room was lived in at one point in time and are now abandoned. I feel that this painting shows that sometimes life is not fair and that nature can be both beautiful but also destructive. All artists, make sense of a world that is often senseless. They derive beauty from destruction, art from meaningless objects, and can even turn victims of pain into objects of tribute.