Student documents journey with photos

Senior photography major Tyanna Burton used her skills to document NAU's Alternative Spring Break to Waveland, Miss.

"I went into it with a photographer’s perspective as an assignment," she said. "I was looking for a way to bring back what it was really like so people here would have a clue. But photos and words don’t do it justice, it was something to experience first-hand. I had never gone to a site after a disaster of that magnitude."

Burton shares some of her most compelling photos here, and will also put them on display in the School of Communication during the week of April 23 in the second floor merchandising display room for free public viewing.

All photos ©2006, Tyanna Burton. For permission click here.

A view along Beach Street in Waveland. Homes used to line this stretch of the coast of this community, now there are only empty foundations slabs.	The steeple from the Main Street United Methodist Church in Bay St. Louis, Miss., was moved from the street to the church's front door after it came crashing down during the hurricane.
Residents gather together the belongings that they can find at the foundation where their homes once stood.	A child's bedroom for the past 6-1/2 months. Most of the residents of Waveland are sleeping in tents while they attempt to rebuild their homes and lives.
All that is left of a home in Waveland, Miss. Note the empty foundations surrounding this property. There are almost no remaining structures in the neighborhood.	One of many Waveland area homes that haven't been touched since the hurricane.
The kitchen at the iCare Camp gets prepared to feed 300+ people for dinner. Left to Right: Trent Shumway (NAU), Eric Rojas (cook), Tamara McBride (NAU), Emily Rehm (Columbia College Chicago).	A boat that was carried inland by the title surge from the docks about a 1/2 mile away. This is a common sight all throughout the area.

Two homes that were pushed into one another during the title surge. Many homes have not been touched since the hurricane; the bedroom contents of the home on the left are still present.	NAU students Trent Shumway and Monica Paramo take time to do a beach clean-up.	NAU students Stacie Leach and Trent Shumway remove debris from the Breland home in Mississippi.
Student and AmeriCorp volunteers gutted Richard Breland's entire home in Hancock County, Miss., in just a few hours.	NAU student Mike Davis scoops up debris created from tearing out the interior of this Mississippi home.	During a yard clean up, NAU student Tamara McBride chops up old tree roots to remove them from the property.