A unique community of people live on the Batture, a short strip of land along the banks of the Mississippi River, unprotected by the levee.
At the turn of the twentieth century, a much more extensive Batture was occupied by hundreds of makeshift homes of people working in the fishing and shipping industries. Eventually, the government tore down most of these homes.
Today, the Batture consists of only twelve dwellings on stilts, ranging from more-or-less improvised huts to tony cottages. It’s remarkable that these structures exist at all in the slim, precarious margin between levee and river.
With droll humor, hundreds of driftwood sticks adorn this Batture home like subtropical icicles.
Batture bricolage
Rusted buoys washed up by the river
All photos by Camille Martin
Rogue Embryo 