Photographing the Two Sides of Louisiana's Levees

The coast of southeast Louisiana is disappearing faster than anywhere else in the world—scientists estimate a football field of land is lost to rising sea levels every hour. With the earth literally shifting beneath their feet, communities have to adapt.

Many families are stalwartly digging in, elevating their properties to precarious heights, though perhaps no more precarious than the conditions they’re responding to. Other residents appear to be living life as usual, enjoying the degree of comfort that comes with living inside the region’s extensive flood protection system. Some are even building anew. Those situated outside of the levees and flood gates face the difficult choice of abandoning homes and businesses to nature.