Old Highway 51

“Old Highway 51” is a poetic visual archive of a vanishing Louisiana landscape. The work documents environmental collapse, political neglect, and quiet resilience, serving as both diary and testimony for a future shaped by today’s choices.

In southern Louisiana, there is a stretch of land that is expected to disappear by 2050. According to NASA and other climate science institutions, much of this region will be underwater in the next 25 years. My work focuses on one fragile place within that landscape, Old Highway 51. This old two-lane road runs alongside the newer, elevated Highway 51, which sits safely above flood levels. In contrast, Old Highway 51 is low, exposed, and vulnerable. It serves not only as a road, but as a symbol of the communities that will be affected by rising sea levels much sooner than others.

This project is my way of recording the present before it’s gone. It’s also a form of critique. By photographing this area in 2025, I’m building a visual archive for the future. These images reflect the political choices we’re making today, choices that, if ignored, will lead to further loss. This work isn’t just for people now, but for those who may look back in 2050.

In March 2024, I drove from New York City to New Orleans. As I traveled south, the landscape changed, swamps, flat land, low roads, and long bridges. Nearing New Orleans, I found myself on the elevated Highway 51. Looking down, I saw a weathered road beneath me, Old Highway 51, surrounded by water. Houses on stilts lined the road, docks replaced driveways, and water was never far away.

That contrast stayed with me. A few days later, I returned, this time to the old road. I drove slowly, stopping often. I didn’t have a specific plan; I just felt a need to take photographs. I noticed how close the water came to the road, and how the land seemed to lean, as if sinking. Later, I learned that it truly is:, the land is sinking, the water is rising, and both the road and the people living nearby may not be here much longer.

My approach to photography is intuitive. I don’t work from a checklist. I respond to what I see and feel in the moment. While my work uses a documentary style, I don’t consider myself a traditional documentary photographer. I’m not focused only on facts, I’m trying to capture the feeling of a place, the emotions beneath the surface.