A Photographer’s Pivot, Post-Sandy

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Coke Wisdom O’Neal discovered a series of old Kodachrome family slides submerged in the nine feet of flood water that engulfed his Red Hook studio. A tragedy on all other levels, the damage proved the perfect antidote to propel the photographer’s move to abstraction, previously at a standstill, as he became inspired to scan and print the oxidized slides. “The storm destroyed tools, books, old artwork, drawings and unfinished work,” he said. “They now feel to me like objects that were holding me back from going forward.”