There were many gorgeous-looking books laid out at the Aperture press preview, not least of all 'Destroy This Memory', photographs by Richard Misrach. The book is being published to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and accompanied by an exhibition on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art July 24 - October 24, 2010.

"The photographs in Richard Misrach's 'Destroy This Memory' (Aperture, August, 2010) are an affecting reminder of the physical and psychological impact of Hurricane Katrina as told by those on the ground, and seen through the lens of a contemporary master. Rather than simply surveying the damage, Misrach - who has photographed the region regularly since the 1970s, most notably for his ongoing Cancer Alley project - found himself drawn to the hurricane-inspired graffiti: messages scrawled in spray paint, crayons, chalk, or whatever materials residents and rescue workers happened to have on hand. At turns threatening, desperate, clinical, and even darkly humorous, the phrases he captured - the only text that appears in the book - offer unique and revealing human perspectives on the devastation and shock left in the wake of this disaster."

Destroy This Memory, photos by Richard Misrach