The Flood of Eyre Park


  • Photographer
    Lisa Sibley
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    Lisa Sibley Photography
  • Date of Photograph
    2014
  • Technical Info
    Digital Vernacular Collage

Deeper Perspective Series. My images are a study in going home when there is no home to go to; bringing forth the past to insure its existence for the future.

Story

I said goodbye to my Grandmother on July 5, 1971. No one knew then that none of us would ever return to Nanna's house after The Flood of Eyre Park 2 months later.
A vibrant, working class neighborhood filled with families was destroyed when the dyke broke in front of my old house, just two blocks from where my grandparents lived with their three youngest sons.
After a rainy night of back to school shopping, they returned to their neighborhood only to be met by firemen and police manning the blockade. The water was rising and no one was allowed back in. It took days for the water to recede and people to be able to return to assess the damage.
The first floor of the two story row homes were completely underwater, flooring covered in mud. Everything on the first floor was a total loss. The National Guard assisted with security and clean up. Families were relocated to state housing for the poor. My grandparents never returned to live in their home. After several months in state housing they relocated to a nearby town.
My series, The Flood of Eyre Park is a compilation of vernacular images, from the aftermath of the flood and life before and after the flood, and Google Earth images of the exact location today ( or the date of the Google Earth image capture by Google) of where the vernacular images were originally created.
The digital collaged images show Nanna's dining room broken on the street as the National Guard trucks drive forward; the neighborhood of row homes that used to be; me sitting on the steps of my home that no longer exists; Little Petey with his dog in front of the same nonexistent home; and finally, Ruth, my Nanna, worn but relocated to a home similar to the one she lost.
My work explores memory and identity. I am interested in the dynamics of loss and life. How does the intersection of these two things affect identity, be it personal or cultural, when the formidable life is all but non-existent? How does one return to a childhood home that no longer stands? My images are a study in going home when there is no home to go to; bringing forth the past to insure its existence for the future.

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