When Hurricane Sandy hit New York, the Newtown Creek—a superfund site—overflowed and flooded my basement-level, Long Island City storage unit; it was days before the facility, using generators, could pump out the water and get lights on.  I had to sift through years of memories and irreplaceable objects in the freezing basement bundled up in layers of wool and down, and with rubber gloves and face mask on to protect myself from the toxic sludge that coated everything.  As I said goodbye to each item, I photographed it for posterity.