This image was done next to the Industrial Canal levee in March 2007. During this trip, as with the first one in May 2006, I had a chance to talk to many people in the Lower Ninth: locals, tourists, volunteers, people rebuilding, people giving up, etc. In this case I talked to the gentleman next door, who was in the process of rebuilding his house (100 ft. from the levee). I asked him, as I had asked most people, why are you rebuilding? His answer was " Blood, Sweat, and Tears." I asked him what that meant, and he said that his house and little piece of land was all his family had ever had since slavery, and they were not going to give it up. Every time I asked that question, I received a different answer, but in the end they all made sense; it revealed to me how complicated a situation had evolved in the recovery of New Orleans.
