The wreckage left by the Force 5 tornado in Joplin, Mo., defies description and baffles belief. That’s where Edward Keating comes in. The veteran photojournalist blends a tender love for Joplin—he knows the city from repeated visits as part of a project he is pursuing on the storied American artery Route 66—with a clear, unflinching eye. I met him on Tuesday in the midst of the hellscape after he’d spent most of a day trying to reach Joplin from his home in New York. The flight was delayed, then diverted. He wound up driving across Arkansas under skies black with rain and ablaze with horizontal lightning. Even so, he looked straight from Central Casting: slight, bearded, a couple of old Leicas around his neck and a battered camera bag slung over his shoulder. He blew me away with a move I’d never seen before. When he shot portraits of survivors, he noticed they were posing for his camera. So to relax them, he moved his camera away from his face and talked quietly while he clicked away without looking. He had a hand-rolled cigarette hanging from his lip.
—David Von Drehle
Edward Keating is a self-taught photographer who worked on staff for The New York Times from 1991-2002. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize the newspaper received for their coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He is represented by Contact Press Images and based in New York City.More of Keating’s work can be viewed here.
Homes were ripped apart and more than 100 people were killed in minutes by the EF-5 twister. Joplin, Mo. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time Officials say the tornado cut a path a mile by four miles wide, destroying over 2000 homes and businesses, including the hospital. An overview of the destruction. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time A resident sorts through what's left of a kitchen in Joplin, Mo. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time The view outside, from the remnants of a picture window. Joplin, Mo. May 24, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time A Volkswagon Beetle trapped in debris on Gabby Street. Joplin, Mo. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time Copies of Life magazine lie in a pile of personal belongings. Mo. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time Ed Boyd steered his wife Kathy away from the tub she was heading for and into this 3x3 closet under the stairs where they survived the storm. Joplin, Mo. May 24, 2011
Edward Keating—Contact for Time What's left of a kitchen cupboard. Joplin, Mo. May 26, 2011
Edward Keating—Contact for Time The crucifix on top of St. Mary's Catholic Church survived the storm and remains standing. Joplin, Mo. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time The interior of Joplin High School's music room. May 25, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time Sheets of metal molded onto a tree stripped of its bark and leaves in Joplin, Mo. May 25, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time A mural of Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat, in the stairwell at Irving Elementary School. Joplin, Mo. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time Abandoned wheelchairs are scattered in the parking lot at the devastated Greenbriar Nursing Home in Joplin, Mo. Wednesday, May 26, 2011. Eleven residents died after an EF-5 tornado struck the facility. Edward Keating—Contact for Time Missing posters in a shelter set up at Missouri Southern State University. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time The force of the storm crushed these two vehicles together which landed in middle of field. Joplin, Mo. May 25, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time Dan Farren surveys the damage outside his destroyed home on Kentucky Street. May 26, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time Much of Joplin is unrecognizable since the tornado. A woman walks by the railroad tracks near 20th St. May 24, 2011
Edward Keating—Contact for Time An unscathed oil painting lies next to a wrecked car on front lawn of the Stallsmith family home. Joplin, Mo. May 24, 2011Edward Keating—Contact for Time
