Haiti Aftermath by Jon Lowenstein was photographed in Port-au-Prince in the weeks following the January 12, 2010 earthquake, examining everyday survival amid the collapse of Haiti’s capital. Drawing on Lowenstein’s long-term engagement with power, poverty, and social violence, the series approaches the earthquake not only as a natural disaster but as a symptom of deeper structural inequality. The fact that Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with a fragile state and limited infrastructure, further amplified the devastation. Within this context, the work interrogates how international aid, military presence, and local resilience intersect, from chaotic food distributions to the uneasy reception of American troops.
Visually, the project centers on intimate, often uncomfortable proximity. Tight frames show a sister holding her younger brother after his leg amputation, a mother shaving her son’s head in a refugee camp, or a lone woman trying to fight a market fire with a single bucket of water. These scenes are set against wider views of flattened neighborhoods, mass graves, and lines for food or security checks, where bodies on the ground and bodies in queues share the same fractured space. The overall mood is somber and tense, marked by gestures of care and routine that persist within a landscape of rubble, smoke, and exposed bodies.
The defining aesthetic of the series comes from the use of Polaroid negative film shot at high temperatures and in extreme conditions, causing many of the images to be deteriorated, damaged by the heat. The material often buckles under stress: emulsions bubble, tones smear, edges burn, and this damage becomes part of the narrative, echoing the fragility of homes and institutions.
The series is widely regarded as a significant moment in Lowenstein’s career, helping secure the Hasselblad Master Award in Editorial in 2012 and featuring at international venues such as the Cortona on the Move festival.
