Couple Inside Their Flood Damaged Home, Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA

Accession Number
2014/2.328

Title
Couple Inside Their Flood Damaged Home, Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA

Artist(s)
Leonard Freed

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1972

Medium & Support
vintage gelatin silver print on paper

Dimensions
8 x 10 in. ( 20.32 x 25.4 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of Thomas Wilson '79 and Jill Garling '80

Subject matter
In this photograph, a married couple pose in the middle of a domestic interior space that has been ravaged by flood in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Standing at some distance from the photographer, they hold up documents evidently rescued from among the debris that fills the home. Though it made landfall as a tropical storm, former Hurricane Agnes became one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern U.S. history due to the floods and tornadoes it caused across much of the eastern seaboard. Wilkes-Barre was particularly affected and had to be evacuated when the Susquehanna River crested its banks, resulting in 128 deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Freed, known for images of the Civil Rights Movement, here photographs residents who have returned to the city after the storm has subsided. Freed focuses on not only the flood's devastation but also its effects on the community and on individuals. 

Physical Description
People inside their home that has been destroyed by a flood.

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Primary Object Type
black and white print

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
floods (natural events)
homeowners
houses
interior architecture (object genre)
living rooms
people (agents)
rubble

16 Related Resources

Home
(Part of 6 Learning Collections)
Marriage
(Part of 8 Learning Collections)
Rust Belt
(Part of 7 Learning Collections)
Environmental Justice
(Part of 5 Learning Collections)
Jewish Photographers 
(Part of: Ethnicity and Race)
Leonard Freed
(Part of: Modern Jewish Photography F22 - Dash Moore)
Objects from Aftermath: Landscapes of Devastation
(Part of: <b>Aftermath: Landscapes of Devastation</b>)
Art for Empathy / Perspective Taking (set of 12)
(Part of: F20 Thiel and Goudie - Michigan Medicine Social Work Internship Program)
W21 Tanielian - INTLSTD 401 - Afterlives
(Part of: Resources Made by Isabel Engel)

& Author Notes

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