Jennifer Shaw: We took our hurricane sideshow on the road.

Jennifer Shaw: Hurricane Story

October 2011 – March 2012

The Presbytere, Louisiana State Museum
751 Chartres St.
New Orleans, LA 70116
504-568-6968
Hours: Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm
Museum admission: $6

“Hurricane Story,” an exhibit of photographs by Jennifer Shaw, opens at the Louisiana State Museum on Oct. 21. With twenty vivid images, Shaw narrates her experience during Hurricane Katrina. Told in vignettes created of toys, carefully lit and captured with a modified Holga camera —itself more of a toy than the choice of a professional photographer such as Shaw— the compositions alternate between the whimsical and the deadly serious. The exhibit will be on view in the Presbytere’s 1st Floor Special Exhibition Gallery through March, 2012.

In the early hours of August 28, 2005, Jennifer Shaw and her husband loaded up their small truck with two cats, two dogs, two crates full of negatives, all their important papers and a few changes of clothes. They evacuated to a motel in southern Alabama, and waited anxiously. Nine months pregnant, Shaw gave birth to her first son just as the storm ravaged the Gulf Coast. After an odyssey lasting more than two months, they returned home to New Orleans.

Like many artists, Shaw pursued an outlet to express these life-changing events in her art. “The project began as a cathartic way to process some of the lingering anger and anxiety over that bittersweet journey,” she states in the introduction to her 2011 book, “Hurricane Story.” “It grew into a narrative series of self-portraits in toys illustrating my experiences and emotional state during our time in exile.” The book, “Hurricane Story,” published by Chin Music Press will be available at the Friends of the Cabildo Giftshop in Jackson Square.

The Presbytere, a National Historic Landmark building, is located on Jackson Square.

Robert W. Tebbs: Elmwood Plantation (side elevation), 1926, vintage gelatin silver print, Louisiana State Museum, 1956.087.331

Robert W. Tebbs: The Louisiana Plantation Photographs

December 5, 2011 – November 2012
Opening: Monday, December 5, 5:30-8:30pm

The Presbytere, Louisiana State Museum
751 Chartres St.
New Orleans, LA 70116
504-568-6968
Hours: Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm
Museum admission: $6

Robert W. Tebbs produced the first photographic survey of Louisiana’s plantations in 1926, with the guidance of Richard Koch, New Orleans preservation architect. A precise documentarian, Tebbs also reveals a poetic sensibility in the plantation photos: a frequent emphasis on aspects of decay, neglect, incompleteness, and loss lends a wistful aura compounded by the fact that many of the homes no longer exist.

Louisiana in the mid-1920s moved from an economy beyond slave-based agriculture, toward mechanization, and on the brink of social and political reforms. Tebbs’s Louisiana plantation photographs capture a literal and cultural past, reflecting a new national awareness of historic preservation and presenting plantations to us anew. The exhibition features 60 of Tebbs’s most striking photographs, and will be on view in the 2nd Floor Special Exhibition Gallery through Nov. 2012.

On Monday, December 5th, the Friends of the Cabildo, the Louisiana Landmarks Society and the Preservation Resource Center join with the Louisiana State Museum to celebrate the opening of Louisiana Plantation Photographs by Robert Tebbs. December 5th also marks the release of the book Robert W. Tebbs, Photographer to Architects: Louisiana Plantations in 1926, written by LSM visual arts curator Dr. Richard Anthony Lewis. The Louisiana State University Press published the 165-page hardcover catalogue, with foreword by Robert J. Cangelosi, Jr., President of Koch and Wilson, APC. Lewis and Cangelosi will offer remarks and sign copies of the book.

Open to the public. Complimentary refreshments will be served.

The Presbytere, a National Historic Landmark building, is located on Jackson Square.

Stephen Wilkes: Carolyn Parker on Porch, Holy Cross, 2006

In Katrina’s Wake: Restoring a Sense of Place,
Photographs by Stephen Wilkes

December 8, 2011–March 3, 2012

The Historic New Orleans Collection – Williams Research Center
410 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
504-598-7137
Hours: Tue–Sat, 9:30am–4:30pm

Presented in conjunction with PhotoNOLA 2011, this exhibition tells the stories of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and the Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orleans’s Ninth Ward—two historic communities united by disaster and the struggle to preserve their heritage and rebuild the social fabric that is integral to their neighborhoods. In the spring and summer of 2006, photographer Stephen Wilkes documented the damage wrought by Katrina in these two areas. He also photographed and recorded the stories of the people committed to rescuing the past for the future of their historic communities.

Shannon Brinkman: Preservation Hall Interior, Daytime

Preservation Hall at Fifty: Celebrating Jazz
Featuring photographs by Shannon Brinkman

November 4, 2011- November 3, 2012
Opening Gala: November 4th, 2011, 8pm-midnight, gala tickets $50

Old U.S. Mint, Louisiana State Museum
400 Esplanade Ave
New Orleans, LA 70116
504-568-6968 | 1-800-568-6968
Hours: Tues-Sun 10-4:30
Museum admission: $6

Preservation Hall is celebrating its 50th year anniversary with an exhibition at the Old U.S. Mint Museum. Featured in this exhibit are 60 medium format film photos by Shannon Brinkman, made between 2002~2011. Many have never before been shown in a public venue. LSU Press published a book on her work, ‘Preservation Hall’, in 2011.

The show also includes vintage images and memorabilia and wonderful audio and written quotes from the Preservation Hall Jazz band members. Eve Abrams, heard on NPR, and co-author of ‘Preservation Hall’ pulled inspiring quotes and audio from interviews she made with the musicians between 2008-2010.

The exhibition will launch with a Gala on November 4, 2011.

Shannon Brinkman has led a duel life with over 20 years as a working photographer spent between sport horse photography covering events such as the Olympics, Pan Ams, World Equestrian Championships, as well as an award-winning art photography career. She has resided in New Orleans since 1997. ”

Josephine Sacabo: Las Estrellas

The Historic New Orleans Collection

Williams Research Center
410 Chartres St
New Orleans, LA 70130

Joséphine Sacabo Lecture
Friday, December 9, 2011
7-9pm
Free and open to the public :: Limited seating, first come first served.

Joséphine Sacabo is an internationally acclaimed photographer who divides her time between New Orleans and Mexico. Both locales influence the dreamlike, surreal, and romantic quality of her photographs.

For the PhotoNOLA 2011 keynote lecture Sacabo will present an overview of her work to date, and will discuss her technical and aesthetic approach to the photographic medium.

Joséphine Sacabo is a native of Laredo, Texas, and was educated at Bard College, New York. Previous to coming to New Orleans, she lived and worked extensively in France and England. Her earlier work was in the photo-journalisitic tradition, influenced by Robert Frank, Josef Koudelka, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. She now works in a very subjective, introspective style, using poetry as inspiration. The poets she lists as her most important influences include Rilke, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Juan Rulfo and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

Sacabo’s most recent series, “Óyeme Con Los Ojos” (Hear Me With Your Eyes) was featured as a Fotoseptiembre USA 2010 Signature Exhibit, in San Antonio TX. Her photographs are currently on display in a retrospective at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and a solo show at A Gallery for Fine Photography.

***

A PhotoNOLA Welcome Party at A Gallery for Fine Photography, where Joséphine Sacabo’s latest work is on display, precedes the lecture from 4:00-6:00pm that evening.

PhotoNOLA’s multiple artist book signing event, presented in partnership with Octavia Books, will directly precede Ms. Sacabo’s lecture at THNOC’s Williams Research Center, from 5:00-7:00pm. Several of Sacabo’s titles will be available for purchase then, which the artist will be available to sign following her presentation.

William Christenberry: The Underground Club, Greensboro, Alabama, 1997

Photographs from the Permanent Collection

October 31, 2011 – January 3, 2012

Ogden Museum of Southern Art
925 Camp Street
New Orleans, La. 70130
504-539-9600
Hours: Wed – Mon 10am – 5pm; Thurs 6-8pm

The photographs in this exhibition provide a visual narrative of the ever-changing American South – the nineteenth century, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement and the emergence of the New South. The exhibition will feature photographs by E. J. Bellocq, Walker Evans, Elliot Erwitt, William Christenberry, and many more. On view through Jan. 3, 2012. Curated by Richard McCabe.

Josephine Sacabo: Óyeme Sorda, 2010

Josephine Sacabo: Oyeme Con Los Ojos

October 1, 2011 – January 8, 2012
Opening: Saturday, October 1, 6-8 pm

Ogden Museum of Southern Art
925 Camp Street
New Orleans, La. 70130
504-539-9600
Hours: Wed – Mon 10am – 5pm; Thurs 6-8pm

Josephine Sacabo’s photographs transfer the viewer into a world of constructed beauty. Built upon a foundation of poetry and literature, her many portfolios are visual manifestations of the written word. Sacabo divides her time between New Orleans and Mexico. Both locales inform her work – culminating in imagery that is as dreamlike, surreal, and romantic as the places that she calls home. On view through Jan. 8, 2012.

For over three decades, artists Josephine Sacabo and Ersy have shared inspirations and ideas through a friendship based on a mutual respect and joy in one another’s lives. In keeping with that spirit of friendship, inspiration and collaboration, two exhibitions – Ersy: Architect of Dreams and Sacabo’s Óyeme Con Los Ojos – share space in the Ogden Museum’s galleries, allowing the viewer to see the dialogue between these unique bodies of work.

Read more about Ersy and Josephine Sacabo in the New York Times article: Life and Art, Side by Side in the French Quarter

There will be panel discussion/gallery talk scheduled.

Shown above: Óyeme Sorda, 2010, photogravure printed on handmade Japanese tissue and chine-colléd velvet rag paper.

Sophie T. Lvoff: Louisiana Still Life 936

NOLA NOW, Part I: Swagger for a Lost Magnificence

October 1, 2011 – January 29, 2012
Opening: Saturday, October 1, 2011, 6-11pm

Contemporary Arts Center (CAC)
900 Camp Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
504-528-3805
Hours: Thur – Sun, 11am-4pm

A snapshot reflecting a community, NOLA NOW, Part I: Swagger for a Lost Magnificence, brings together thirty-five artists (thirty-four artists and one collaborative team) producing work in a culturally specific geographical locale that has been strongly impacted by recent sociopolitical and economic circumstances. Made within the last two years, the work encompasses a multitude of impressions and imagery presented through drawing, film, installation, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, sound, and video. One of the many links is what can best be described as a pining for the past. Thus, Swagger for a Lost Magnificence (2010), a film by Ashley Brett Chipman‚ aptly titled after a line from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night‚ serves as a subtitle for NOLA NOW, Part I. Many of the works in the exhibition are not necessarily nostalgic, but express a desire for an economy we once knew, an environment less scathed, or even a stronger sense of purpose in a world where things fall apart over and over again. Also found in many of the works is a sense of movement, a physical traversing from one place to another, or, in the Surrealist tradition, a philosophical or psychological journey that seeks to expand the possibilities of human experience. And finally, the notion of home‚ and how it defines the individual is overwhelmingly apparent in NOLA NOW, Part I. The influx of a new creative class to New Orleans, paired with the return of many who were displaced as a result of the events that unfolded following Hurricane Katrina, has undoubtedly affected artists living in this city. NOLA NOW, Part I thoughtfully considers our sense of place and self, exploring a landscape of ideas and visions that embodies where we are as much as where we dream of being.

Artists in NOLA NOW, Part I: Swagger for a Lost Magnificence are Michele Basta, Ron Bechet, Angela Berry, James Taylor Bonds, Kyle Bravo, Hannah Chalew, Ashley Brett Chipman, Teresa Cole, Aaron Collier, Andy Cook, Dawn DeDeaux, James Goedert, Dave Greber, Sally Heller, Stephen Hilger, Debra Howell, Gene Koss, Erica Lambertson Philippe, Robin Levy, Srdjan Loncar, Sophie T. Lvoff, Grace Mikell, Jennifer Odem, Mary Jane Parker, Brooke Pickett, Duane Pitre, Lala Ra?°ƒçiƒá, Kate Ryan, Club S + S (Stephen Paul Day and Sibylle Peretti), Christopher Saucedo, Nina Schwanse, Margot Walsh, Carl Joe Williams, Monica Zeringue, and Luba Zygarewicz.

Curated by Amy Mackie, Director of Visual Arts, Contemporary Arts Center

GeorgeDureau: Troy Joshua Brown, 1985

George Dureau: Paintings, Drawings & Photographs

October 1, 2011 -  January 3, 2012

Ogden Museum of Southern Art
925 Camp St.
New Orleans, La. 70130
504-539-9600
Hours: Weds -Mon 10am-5pm; plus Ogden After Hours on Thurs. 6-8pm
Museum admission: $10 general public/ free for members

George Valentine Dureau is a painter, drawer and photographer whose work is focused on the human form. Working in classical themes and with a uniquely modern approach to the materials, he has created a body of work that stands as a testament to the dignity of the human spirit. Born in 1930 in the Faubourg St. John of New Orleans, Dureau received his first formal art training at the Delgado Museum at age nine, and continued his studies at Louisiana State University and Tulane School of Architecture. He has been an integral part of the New Orleans art world since his first gallery exhibition in 1960. On October 15, 2011 at the O What a Night Gala, Dureau will receive the Opus Award, given annually by the Ogden Museum of Southern Art to a member of the arts community whose life’s work constitutes a major contribution to the cultural landscape of the American South. On view through Jan. 3, 2012. Curated by Bradley Sumrall.

Dancing Edge by Betty Press

African Wisdom in Image and Proverb: Betty Press
Becoming Home: Mariana Sheppard & Nakeya Brown

December 10, 2011 -January 21, 2012
Opening: Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, 6-9pm
Curator Tour / Lecture by Beryl Hunter: Saturday, Jan. 14, 2-4pm
Closing Reception and Artist Talk: January 21, 6-9pm

McKenna Museum of African American Art
2003 Carondelet St.
New Orleans, LA 70130
504-586-7432
Hours:Tue & Wed by appt, Thur-Sat 11am-4pm

I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb highlights 125 black and white photographs of African daily life combined with related proverbs, which were used, and are still being used, to instruct members of the African society how to think, how to behave and how to have a better life. The title of the book comes from a well-known proverb I am because we are: we are because I am attributed to South Africa. It speaks to the interconnectedness and responsibility that we have for each other. It embodies the concept of Ubuntu, the African idea of living harmoniously in community. The black and white photographs of unique moments in African daily life taken by Betty Press, combined with related proverbs collected by Anneta Miller, illustrate traditional African wisdom.

The exhibition at the museum will consist of 20-40 black and white images selected from the above mentioned book. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the opening reception.

Betty Press
Betty Press is currently an Adjunct Professor of Photography at University of Southern Mississippi, in Hattiesburg. Previous to that she taught at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. She is best known for her photographs taken in Africa when she lived and worked in Kenya as a freelance photojournalist from 1987 to 1995. Now living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi she photographs in the South as well as continues to travel to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Cuba and Africa. In 2008-09 she photographed in Sierra Leone while accompanying her husband Dr. Bob Press who was a Fulbright Scholar and Lecturer at Fourah Bay College. Her photographs have been published in many major magazines and newspapers.

Book info:
184 pp, Hardcover, Size 10” X 8” | 125 Duotone images by Betty Press
First edition, $39.95 | ISBN: 978-0-9835454-4-6
In partnership with Books For Africa whose mission is to end the book famine in Africa. www.booksforafrica.org | BFA receives $5 donation with purchase of book from website

Becoming Home: Mariana Sheppard and Nakeya Brown will be exhibiting a new collection of photographs entitled, “Becoming Home,” inspired by past and present life along Louisiana’s River Road. Situating history in a contemporary context, “Becoming Home” explores the connections and disconnect between the region’s African-American residents and its surrounding plantations.

Mariana Sheppard
A native of greater New Orleans, Louisiana, Mariana Sheppard has a strong passion for raising awareness of social issues through artistic expression. Through her documentary photography, Mariana aims to showcase the intrinsic beauty and resilience of the seemingly ordinary and often overlooked African-American community. Mariana has traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad exploring notions of truth and authenticity in relation to the African Diaspora.

Mariana is a graduate of Louisiana State University and is currently pursuing her Masters at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University.

Nakeya Brown
Nakeya Brown’s photography ranges from spontaneous street photographs, to fashion influenced portraits. Nakeya has a special interest in documenting contemporary African-American experiences usually concentrated to inner-city environments. She believes through her photography she preserves all that will eventually be lost and forgotten; her images serve as time capsules and storytellers.

Nakeya studied Photography and Journalism at Rutgers University. She currently lives and works in New York City.