May 22-Sept. 7, Montreal—Photographer Robert Polidori seems to look for beauty in all the wrong places—the aftermaths of Chernobyl and Hurricane Katrina have served as his subjects—but he ends up finding it, anyway. The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MACM) is holding a survey exhibition featuring over 60 of Polidori’s photographs.

The works are drawn from the artist’s principle series, including Versailles, Havana, Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl, and After the Flood. The stark contrast between human life and devastation in much of Polidori’s work urges the viewer to reflect on the delicateness of the everyday that is too often taken for granted.

Polidori’s work is also a testament to the value of memory. Seeing how there is a new global crisis nearly every week, the photographs remind the viewer that catastrophes may come and go, but their impact on people’s lives carries on long after the media has moved on.

Top: 2520 Deslondes, New Orleans, March 2006
Middle: 2508 Tennessee Street, New Orleans, LA 2006
Bottom: 1923 Lamanche Street, New Orleans, March 2006

All photographs by Robert Polidori, images from Flowers.