Discussion Topic: Rooms from Versailles to post-Katrina New Orleans

I believe Polidori’s work is really interesting. I always have some kind of respect for photographers who use old techniques, like the large-format camera, maybe because I first learned how to use analog photography before starting using a digital camera; however I also believe the quality of the pictures is different. Right now, there is no digital camera that can match the resolution of a large-format one. This specific series of photographs, specially the New Orleans ones, reminded me somehow the movie “I am legend”, because even though you can see no people inside the frames, you get a very good idea of how they are, with the objects they have at home, the way they are arranged, etc. It is like having a portrait without the subject. No matter how somebody try to detach himself from the objects used everyday, or try to explain that the personality is not defined by the things we use, the photographs just show the opposite. Somehow, the pictures of the city in India, and the houses are a portrait of humanity, and the way we arrange ourselves in the space we use everyday. I don’t believe that he is doing something bad, as somebody said about the New Orleans pictures, because natural disasters are just part of the world; I just think people sometimes feel uncomfortable about sharing their privacy with the world.