Hattiesburg – Prior to his visit to Mississippi to help with relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina, acclaimed photographer Keith Fishman of California said he was a proud skeptic.

“I was a ‘show-me’ guy,” said the California native, whose photos of hurricane-ravaged south Mississippi and the Gulf Coast were on display in August in the solo exhibition Silent Witness at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Museum of Art.

However, he said after spending time in the state, serving meals, delivering supplies to those in need, and lending an ear to those who needed to talk or a shoulder for someone to cry on, he wasn’t the same Keith Fishman.

“That experience changed me forever,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, everybody I encounter now I extend the benefit of the doubt to, because I saw it happen there in Mississippi.”

What didn’t change during his visit was Fishman’s artistic eye, and the Southern Miss Hurricane Katrina Research Center is the beneficiary of his efforts to capture the images of Katrina’s impact. Fishman made the collection a gift to the center Dec.1 during a ceremony at McCain Archives on the Southern Miss Hattiesburg campus.

Fishman, a 30-year veteran photographer based in Santa Barbara, was in New York on a photo assignment when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. He watched the news unfold on the television in his hotel room. “I just kept getting drawn into it,” he said.

His brother, Dr. Scott Fishman, a physician who is the director of Pain Medicine at the University of California at Davis, called to ask him to come to Mississippi with him to help with relief efforts.  Scott Fishman decided to travel to Mississippi after his colleague, Hattiesburg physician Dr. Todd Sitzman, requested his help attending to injured storm victims.

“I didn’t think twice about coming, but I didn’t know what to expect,” Fishman said. “When I got there, it was like I was dropped into Armageddon.”

Fishman initially helped out with Red Cross relief efforts in Hattiesburg and then worked his way down to the Gulf Coast. Along the way, he made friends with many survivors, alternately listening, crying and even laughing with them. “Sometimes, laughter is the bandage that can begin the healing,” he said.

When he wasn’t assisting with recovery efforts, he photographed a variety of images of places where his eye led him to scenes of irony, tragedy and humanity.

“I believe my photos of the storm’s impact speak about a different story through the remains,” he said. “I tried to tell every kind of story about what was not there and looked at the periphery by going to places no one had heard of, and the result was this body of ironic and poignant images.”

Among his favorites in the category of irony include a Humpty-Dumpty model at an amusement park in Gulfport - still sitting on a wall, with the remainder of the facility mostly fallen, broken, blown and washed away, including roller coaster cars strewn five streets down. 

Fishman came away from his visit to Mississippi impressed with the survivors he encountered, who refused to fall and break like the original Humpty-Dumpty. His wish is that the outpouring of compassion and support for the survivors would not be actions reserved just for disasters.  

“I was so taken by the sense of humanity displayed in the relief efforts, how people came together and cared about one another,” he said. “I thought ‘Why does it take such a terrible tragedy to get humans to act the way we should all the time?’ The solution for world peace is to act the way we do after something like this. We don’t need to wait for a natural disaster.”

Proceeds from purchases of Fishman’s photos of Hurricane Katrina images will be given to hurricane relief funds in Mississippi, which is rarely far from his thoughts. “My desire to continue to help is permanently tattooed in my brain,” he said.

Dr. Raymond Scurfield, director of the Hurricane Katrina Research Center, said he’s just as impressed with Fishman’s enthusiasm for giving his work to Southern Miss as he is his artistic abilities.

“To have someone willing to make a donation of something that is important to them just makes it all that more significant,” he said. “I think it’s beautiful.”

“Where else should they be?” Fishman said of his donation. “I can’t think of a better place.”

To view and purchase prints of Fishman’s work, visit www.keithfishman.com.

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