Art of Destruction | Hurricane Helene, Asheville NC.

Like many in Western North Carolina, my family lived through the devastation of Hurricane Helene, which left behind a trail of loss, destruction, and heartbreak. We were fortunate—our immediate family and community were safe, and our home remained untouched. Once we settled into the post-Helene "once-in-a-thousand-year-storm" normal, I felt an inexplicable calling to grab my camera and venture into Asheville’s beloved River Arts District to document the storm’s aftermath.

I wanted to honor the artisans, artists, purveyors, small business owners, and developers of the River Arts District who have poured their genius, soul, and creativity into this vibrant community. So many will never witness the destruction firsthand, and this is my humble way of capturing what the storm left behind.

The scale of destruction and the sheer power of wind and water are hard to describe unless you’ve seen it yourself. Even then, all you can manage is a stunned 'My God,' or a string of jumbled expletives as you try to make sense of it all. A storage tank wedged in a storefront, a couch improbably perched on a third-floor roof, twisted metal, mangled semi trailers, unrecognizable debris, and massive trees uprooted—all layered in thick mud. It was beyond comprehension.

Amid this chaos and overwhelm, I found myself drawn to small, intimate vignettes, and the artists who were trying to excavate their work, desperate to recover any piece of their soul’s expression and livelihood. In these quiet moments, there was a grotesque “beauty” in how the flood had rearranged everything—a theater of the absurd, macabre, and surreal, all shaped by wind and water. It was God-scale Wabi-Sabi, a raw reminder of impermanence, my smallness, and the humbling forces of nature. Every fragment of art, or assemblage seemed to hold its own story—a voice, a livelihood, a history, a dream pursued, a possibility.

Taking a photo felt immensely inconsequential in the face of so much loss. However, it felt like my soul's way to confront the immense tragedy, honor and grieve the loss one frame at a time, and hopefully, help others do the same. I moved nothing. I simply framed what nature wrought or what the artists or business owners in the community rescued and laid out in the sun to dry.

In Service, Brody.

Click on an image or swipe on your phone to view a slide show.

Donation Links To Help Asheville Artists At the Bottom of the Page