This lecture was probably one of the most interesting that I’ve come across so far. Mayer was taking an event that we all knew. He then showed and described it in a way that was probably unknown to people who had not been in New Orleans at the time of Katrina. Most interesting was how he described the role of the media, highlighting that in fact, it did more harm than good for the people involved in the disaster.
More than anything, this lecture makes you view all media in a different way. It makes us ask the question: Is any of the media we see real? I think to experience the event and be changed by it, versus saying that you were there, and simply capturing it is what makes it true fact instead of simply an interpretation of fact. So in a way, this interpretation is its own fiction.
The fact that photographers in the media can compete in a “winner takes all” fashion during a time when people are suffering is also a testament to how desensitized and selfish people as a whole have become. Mayer is in that respect refreshing, both in his point of view and his reasons for capturing the events that took place.
The most refreshing part of the entire lecture though, was his honesty. That was probably what made this lecture really worth going to. It was an honest and intelligent interpretation to a numbing event that took place in our own recent history.
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