12-DEC-2012
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
This burial ground, founded in 1789, is the oldest existing cemetery in New Orleans. It features 600 tombs, allowing for multiple burials. It is the interplay of light and shadow that gives this scene it’s meaning. The cemetery seems haunted, lonely, and decaying, yet rich in symbols of immortality.
12-DEC-2012
Shattered, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
Vandalism is rife in this inner city cemetery. This tomb, nearly 200 years old, seems to have been shattered with the force of a cannonball. More likely, it was a rock or hammer that defaced this piece of New Orleans history. Some of the tomb’s elegant cursive engraving incongruously survives the brutality of the vandal’s work.
12-DEC-2012
Ruination, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
I compare a damaged classical sculpture and several begrimed headstones to a pile of bricks and stones that once were a tomb. This contrast is incongruous -- the ruins seem more colorful than the memorials in this image. A large family vault at left provides context for this scene of ruination.
12-DEC-2012
House of Blues, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
New Orleans is often regarded as the “birthplace of jazz.” While jazz did not develop solely in the Crescent City, the town did provide a crucible for its birth and early growth. Music was at the core of the city’s Creole culture, often expressed through its brass and string bands. Meanwhile, the city’s African-Americans brought a looser and less structured form of music to the table. The musical traditions of these two cultures merged to create Jazz, a truly American art form. The House of Blues is one many New Orleans venues for jazz music. Its façade is layered in vivid red, yellow and blue paint – primary colors that express the energetic spirit of jazz itself. Images of instruments, flames, and performers bring additional context to bear. I give the image further energy by stressing its dimensionality, angling my camera upwards to better contrast the box office to the mural painted on the wall of the building. My goal: to stimulate not only the viewer’s sense of sight, but also the sense of sound.
12-DEC-2012
Jazz, Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
New Orleans honors not only the history of jazz music, but commemorates the contributions of the individual musicians that helped develop it as an art form. This statue, created by Kimberly Dummons, salutes the ragtime musician Buddy Bolden, who, at the turn of the last century, was the first to “rag the blues” for dancing, creating an early form of improvisational jazz in the process. All three of the figures in this statue represent Bolden, a tribute to his genius. I moved in on these figures to blend them into one – the very essence of ensemble music. Bolden, regarded as the “King of Jazz,” inspired an entire generation of New Orleans jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong, who as a youngster listened nightly to the silver magic of Buddy’s notes. A 30-acre park honoring Louis Armstrong now dominates the area just north of Rampart Street. Buddy Bolden’s statue is in the park’s “Roots of Music Sculpture Garden.” Armstrong’s own statue stands only a few yards away, likely still listening to Bolden play.
12-DEC-2012
Cigar Factory, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
While exploring New Orleans on my own, I stumbled across a small cigar factory doing business along Decatur Street. The aromatic smell of the place recalled a bygone era when New Orleans cigar manufacturers could import tobacco directly from Cuba. This factory still manages to obtain enough fine tobacco to turn out 30,000 had-rolled cigars a year. As a photographer, I always try to stress the human values inherent in my subject matter. In this case, "less becomes more" as I emphasize the craft and care that goes into making a cigar. It is the language of the fingers that carries the point home. The fresh leaves and the completed cigars on the top and bottom of the right hand side of the frame supply the context we need to appreciate the workmanship.
12-DEC-2012
Old Hickory, Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, has been doffing his hat in Jackson Square since 1856. It is one of several such statues still standing around the country. (One of them can be seen just opposite the White House in Washington’s Lafayette Park.) Sculptor Clark Mills worked on this statue when Jackson was still alive. The former US President even came down to New Orleans to lay the cornerstone of its pedestal, but died before the statue was completed. The statue is most often photographed in full gallop, and pictures of it usually include a view of the famous St. Louis Cathedral in the background. I take a different approach here, limiting the scope of my image to only the head and neck of the rearing horse, along with Jackson himself. I did so because the late afternoon light seemed to be also sculpting Jackson and his horse. The play of light and shadow brings energy and expression of its own to the scene. I chose to stress that here, rather than just describe the appearance of the subject. Meanwhile, I also abstract the Cathedral by concentrating on only its softly focused clock and facade. The clock’s hands stand at almost four o’clock, subtly connecting Jackson’s hat to his face. Known as Old Hickory, Jackson looks supremely confident here as he basks in the afternoon sun -- he seems to sense that his place in history is firmly intact.
12-DEC-2012
The French Connection, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012
This statue commemorates the bonds that exist between France and New Orleans. It stands just outside the city’s French Market, a gilded representation of Joan of Arc, the “Maid of Orleans.” This statue is an exact copy of those that also stand in Paris and in Joan of Arc’s birthplace at Orleans, France. When Charles de Gaulle visited New Orleans in 1959, he presented this copy of the statue to the city as a gift from the people of France. However, the city could not afford the $35,000 price tag to erect it, and stored it for eight years. People in both France and New Orleans eventually raised the money, and the statue was originally placed at the foot of Canal Street, but later moved to its present location at the French Market.
I made this image specifically to close this gallery. It embraces the heritage of New Orleans as well as many of the places we visited on this cruise through the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast. Louisiana’s roots remain French. The territory was claimed on behalf of Bourbon king Louis XIV by the French explorer LaSalle in 1682. New Orleans itself was named for the Regent of France, the Duke of Orleans. Finally, Napoleon sold New Orleans, as well as the entire Mississippi Valley and much of the Gulf Coast, to Thomas Jefferson in 1804. The three flags that fly above the statue underscore this “French Connection.” The Bourbon, Louisiana, and American flags all float in translucent colors upon a deep blue sky. Joan of Arc herself, seen here as a symbol in deep silhouette, represents the heart of this connection. Her own flag, the banner of her patron, Charles VII of France, echoes the thrust of those that fly overhead.
