A French Quarter Portrait

A one person exhibit, walking my camera in New Orleans

Artist Statement

I was born and raised in New Orleans. One of my favorite pastimes as a young man was sauntering through the French Quarter listening to the sounds of jazz slowly seeping out of bars, seeing the sights of striptease hawkers on Bourbon Street flashing peeks of nude dancers, inhaling the smell of beignets frying at Café du Monde, and imagining the taste of muffulettas floating in the air. I knew then I was a stroller without a destination.The French have a name for those who stroll and wander around urban areas: flâneur. Baudelaire described such a person this way: “We might liken him to a mirror as vast as the crowd itself, responding to each one of its movements and reproducing the multiplicity of life and the flickering grace of all the elements of life.”

Once I discovered photography, it was only a matter of time before I began to photograph people. Indeed, my last job before retirement was as photography director for the Texas House of Representatives. Part of my job was to unobtrusively chronicle the Representatives’ interactions in the House Chamber and their dealings with their constituents at the Texas Capitol. My aphorism, “Some people walk their dog; I walk my camera,” pretty much says it all about what I do. As I wander through the French Quarter today, mostly I capture people as they are without their knowledge. As I do so, I’m frequently reminded of the 1987 movie, Wings of Desire, a romantic fantasy written and directed by Wim Wenders. The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of these characters are isolated or estranged from their loved ones and seem to be in need of an angel to give them understanding and compassion. I hope that my work will cause viewers to really “see” people, recognize their humanity, and be more empathetic