All Photos © Lauren Silberman. Above: Kalan & Este at the Koala Bear House

“Over the past four years I have been spending a great deal of time in New Orleans, where I have begun to photograph details of the city as well as its people. Lush with plant life that is not native to the city, and rich with many non-native people that thrive there, New Orleans is, as geographer Peirce Lewis called it the ‘inevitable city on an impossible site.’  The wildlife that flourishes mirrors the human wildlife that flourishes. The photos are a collection of these metaphors – weeds push through the cement, vines crawl through fences, and friends’ and acquaintances’ characters shine through the dust and sweat that makes up the city.

“I see the city as magical hub of growth, hope, and resilience as reflected through its landscape and its people. Whether my subjects are native to the area or come from other places, they each contribute to the life and culture of New Orleans making it a vibrant place in which to live and create. I am constantly inspired by their strength and eccentricities, and each image is a gesture of admiration and an opportunity for me to celebrate their beauty.”

— Lauren Silberman

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All photos © Michael Hanson. Above: Paul Glowaski, the director of the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz, CA, stands in a field at sunset.

People have always grown food in urban spaces—on windowsills and sidewalks, and in backyards and neighborhood parks—but today, urban farmers are leading an environmental and social movement with intent to transform our national food system. To explore this agricultural renaissance, brothers David and Michael Hanson and urban farmer Edwin Marty document twelve successful urban farm programs, from an alternative school for girls in Detroit, to a backyard food swap in New Orleans, to a restaurant supply garden on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Each essay offers practical advice for budding farmers, such as composting and keeping livestock in the city, decontaminating toxic soil, even changing zoning laws.

For seven weeks, David, Michael, and videographer, Charlie Hoxie, traveled the country in a short school bus powered by veggie grease (and a minivan after too many breakdowns delayed the production). The trio slept in empty lots overlooking the Pacific Ocean, mall parking lots, and alongside the very farms they were documenting.The images and stories to come out of these farms show that America’s urban landscape is rich with opportunity for fresh local food. Hanson’s book, Breaking Through Concrete : Building an Urban Farm Revival, published by University of California Press, was recently released.

-courtesy Michael Hanson.

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All Photos © Deborah Luster.

With a homicide rate nearly eight times the national average, New Orleans stands today, as it did as far back as the 1850s, as the homicide capital of the United States. Today it is the third most deadly city on the globe. Tooth For An Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish is a series of tondo photographs documenting contemporary and historical homicide sites in New Orleans. This collection of images was recently published by Twin Palms. Too see more of Luster’s work click here.

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All Photos © Colleen Mullins.

After Katrina, the urban forest of New Orleans lay decimated. But it is not that damage on which my photographs gaze, but on the damage at the hands of man, that has followed. This particular canopy degradation, added to the 70% loss from the ravage of the storm, is setting the stage for an already palpable loss that even with massive replanting efforts, is leaving a scar on the area that will not heal for generations.

The site of the most over-imaged disaster in modern history has become an interesting case study of our strange relationship with nature as urban dwellers. We seem to have a cultural belief that if it is an Eden we planted, we have eminent domain over the territory it occupies. While the deformities can sometimes be comical, the impact of this loss will challenge city residents returning home for years to come. Absent street signs, and often the houses themselves, these trees have frequently been the only signifiers to tell me that I’ve returned to a site to photograph. Imagine if the tree was not a marker for a photograph, but a marker for home.

Nearly 1/4 of forestland in the United States exists in urban settings today. By 2058 there will be another 8.1% increase (roughly the size of Montana) in areas classified as “urban” that were formerly classified as “rural”. I have become fascinated by both reality and nostalgic iconography of the wild and the cultivated Edens we invent, preserve, or otherwise occupy. -Colleen Mullins

To see more of Mullins’ work click here.

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© Samuel Portera. Above: Deer Peas New Orleans, LA, based photographer Sam Portera worked with Michaelyn Broussard, a wetland biologist, to identify and photograph indigenous wetland botanical species. The featured series, “Indicators” are specimens Portera has collected and photographed in his studio. Most of these plants are small and are simply lost in the abundance of life to the average viewer.  Working with Michaelyn he says, “I became aware of how little I knew of what we stand to loose in light of recent catastrophic events.” To see more of Portera’s work click here.

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