I did not expect the tears. Yet they flowed freely during my time in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

I was there to help the Your Shot team with logistics and with the writing portion of their two-day photo workshop in the L9, as it’s widely referred to. The workshop was led by National Geographic photographer Tyrone Turner, photojournalists Susan Sterner and David Y. Lee, and New Orleans-based photographers Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun and held at both the city’s brand new Andrew P. Sanchez & Copelin-Byrd Multi-Purpose Center and the L9 Center for the Arts.

The idea was to give the residents of New Orleans an opportunity to tell their own stories through photographs and words. With the