Views from Versailles to post-Katrina New Orleans

I had the opportunity to read the article posted online in reference to Polidori.  While I believe some photographs should have people in it, I tend to believe that practice can only be incorporated into particular photographs.  If we are referring to action shots or photos of people doing things, then I would say you require people.  If you are using a photo for people to envision themselves in a particular environment, people are required.  However in the case of Polidori and his photos of Katrina, I believe there is a fundamental need for people to not be within these photographs.  I believe the message he is conveying from a photograph such as Katrina, in showing that it is a desolate place full of destruction due to this tragedy can send a more powerful message to people not necessarily there.  Take a move such as Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.  If you watch the preview trailer, you will see that there is not much verbiage there, but rather it is moving images and sound.  To be a little bit cliché, “Actions speak louder than words.”  Not to say necessarily that a great artist such as Polidori can be compared to a motion picture.  But I believe both concepts share similar values.