.22 LR fashion

The parade had ended and I noticed him just standing on the street corner of St. Claude and St. Anthony (7th Ward).  Then I noticed the belt. I walked up to him and I asked if I could take a photograph.  "Sure," he grinned.

Weeks later, I keep wondering about about the uncanny confluence of ballistics and fashion..

Second Line: Bodies in Motion

Second Line: Faces in the Crowd

Dancing Man 504

The "Main Line" is the core section of the parade, and members of the social club.  The "Second Line" can be described as the trailing fans and onlookers dancing behind the Main Line.  On Sunday, December 5th I was able to weave in and out of the Second Line trailing the Dumaine Street Gang.

One of my favorites characters was Dancing Man 504.  [504 is reference to the local area code, and if you want to follow him more closely, you can do so via his facebook page.]

His name is Darryl Young, a native of NOLA dedicated to promoting local New Orleans culture related to dance, music and second lines.  He is tireless, athletic, exuberant, graceful, and contagious.

And he doesn't always dance alone, literally attracting onlookers such as this young lady who followed him for a bit while keeping in step.

Rituals of Induction

Last week I ran around the streets of New Orleans with Meryt and Sarah, my newfound colleagues, and we spent most of our time engaged in a documentary project on the homeless.  During the next few weeks, I'll write more about that experience and share some more of my work and the encounters with street life in the Big Easy and the homeless...their dignity, their kindness, their addictions, their demons.
My work last week left a deep impression as most formative rituals tend to do.

On one particular day my colleagues and I had lunch at Cafe Reconcile, an in-house academic training restaurant for inner-city youth.  The food was great and knowing that profits were going to a great cause felt even better. Along with the memories of a debris-style roast beef po' boy, I will recall a simple note card near my place setting.  It had a quote from Henry David Thoreau:  Things don't change, we change.   Those words have followed me back home to the DC area.

Midweek, our documentary project was part or a more comprehensive nightly exhibit at the Lost Love Lounge in the Bywater area of town.  The morning of the exhibit Andy Levin was editing our slideshow and as he typed my surname on the title slide, he inadvertently spelled:  M-a-r-t-i.  I paused and then corrected him, but he insisted that as an artist and as a photographer I should consider spelling it in this manner. So I agreed. Along with the more profound transformations engendered by the social documentary project, I also found myself confronting seemingly minor and unintended orthographic refinements.

A portion of my contribution to the overall project is scheduled to be published online in the near future in a well-known online magazine.  I'll let you know when it comes out.  In the meantime I will share some of my other experiences of that week, bit by bit and post by post.  Some light-hearted, and some not.

Photo NOLA 2010

Yesterday I arrived in New Orleans for a week-long photography workshop with Andy Levin.  The workshop officially starts today, and runs concurrently with Photo NOLA 2010.  Last night I enjoyed meeting, and talking with a few photographers showcasing their portfolios at the International House Hotel, especially Linda Troeller and her self-portrayal project.  Later in the evening scores of photogs and artsy-types gathered at The Big Top Gallery for an auction.  The energy was ridiculously contagious as the fine art photographs were presented for bidding.

Later this morning, I'll meet the other two students in the workshop and we'll begin to develop our project(s).  I'll keep you posted.

seasonal asymmetries...