NOLA: the french quarter

where do i begin!? color, texture, culture, history, art, music, food...i developed photographer's a.d.d. in an instant! it was painful to try to focus on being deliberate with the 'click, click, click'. i found myself wishing for a 180 degree lens that could just click photos as i blinked. that being said i ended up with the photo equation of... beautiful city + five days = eight hundred some images ("and four extra pounds," she admits while frowning). yikes! i know i can't share all of the insanity so here is my breakdown...

preconceived notions: feathers, masks, beads & voodoo...

while there is this type of subject matter to be captured in New Orleans it isn't nearly in the capacity i thought it would be. maybe i was just too quick to pass these things by during my focus frenzy. maybe it is a learned behavior i picked up from all my summers in wisconsin dells: stop looking for things on the streets most traveled. bourbon street being the street most traveled and containing the 'mardi gras' shops.

 the stuff: stacks and stacks of it

i found myself attracted to the wide variety of objects piled up on curbs, in the windows, on the street. squatters left behind, street musicians belongings, peoples everyday objects (or what was left of them) and my mostest favorite ever...muffuletta! Nammers!

muffuletta on the right

the people: uber friendly and proud

these two caught our attention due to the musical parody they performed about cocaine or maybe it was crack...hm... funny either way. enough to get us to stop and say hi.

 

not a person. i realize that. but the poor thing has to carry human butts around town all day and i just wanted to share.....look! he can't keep his eyes open!

people part two: my encounter with a grave digger

oh boy was this an experience! picked out of the group and asked to join him in an actual tomb. "why, yes ofcourse i will crawl in there with you, you really strange man." it was my fault i was singled out. the one person on the entire trip i did not ask permission first to photograph. lesson learned. sneak a shot and into a grave you go!

 uh....no touchy!!

 and since we are on the topic of real life grave diggers. i might as well share some graveyard images. now this brings me way way back to when i was young (er) and in college. the famous Bonaventure  cemetary is located in Savannah, Georgia (think the cover of the book midnight in the garden of good and evil) where i went to school. a perfect place to begin my black and white film career and to perfect my processing and darkroom skills. ah, the wonderful smell of darkroom chemicals...easily makes my top five scents. this also kicked off my love affair with textures and high contrast.

maybe this should have been filed under 'stuff' category...no idea what this is about. thought it was quirky so i am sharing.

chandeliers: interiors dripping with crystals

daddy, i want a golden sparkly crystal chandelier!!

the end: "found love" series

in Nov. i traveled to memphis with my sister to kick off my traveling season. while out and about i noticed that i seemed to grab quick, non award-winning photos of 'found hearts'. doi!, i am a wedding photographer after all. i can't help but see the hearts, its in my nature. thus started the "found love" series. this is in quotes because my use of the word found is inspired by the artist Duchamp who pushed the boundaries of 20th century art by submitting a found object, which he called a readymade (a urinal which he signed and called Fountain) to an exhibition in the 1900s. if i remember correctly i believe Fountain was never actually exhibited. but that is neither here nor there. and no i am not comparing myself to Duchamp. just enjoy the concept whole-heartedly. haha...get it!?

hoping some day to be able to do an entire post of 'found hearts' from all over the place! or maybe just create a personal wall collage at home. 

chat soon,

rach