The X-Codes

Thanks to a fellow photographer, Cynthia Bittenfield, I learned about a very exciting project spearheaded by Dorthy Moye of Decatur Georgia. It has a tie in to Passover....

Here is the abstract:

"Dorothy Moye explores the prevalence and significance of the X-code, a symbol used by search-and-rescue teams in 2005 to mark searched property in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. She considers the purposes of these codes and how returning New Orleanians felt about these symbols, as well as the stories these markings continue to tell. Moye is currently organizing a Katrina X-codes exhibition in collaboration with professional and amateur photographers under the fiscal sponsorship of the Southern Documentary Fund."



"In retrospect there was something almost biblical about those markings on all the front doors around here," writes New Orleans Times Picayune columnist Chris Rose, "posting notice of who was spared and who was not." Traditions of coding dwellings date back to descriptions in Exodus 12 (the Passover story), when markings appeared for protection instead of after-the-fact reporting. Throughout history, markings have indicated death, quarantine, ghettoization, and destruction, as well as protection. ---from project description