New Orleans seems like three different cities.
First, there is the eerily empty Ninth Ward. Most of the houses that remain are untouched by reconstruction efforts; many are engulfed by overgrowth and rubble.
Across the canal, the French Quarter is astir with nightlife and recovering businesses. Appearances here are deceiving, though - only half the area's pre-Hurricane Katrina population has returned.
And farther west, Tulane University students are resuming a life they knew it before the storm. They say that campus is largely back to normal.
Taken a year after Katrina, these images offer a look at New Orleans as it lies torn between these extremes.
[Click the image below to enlarge]
