Deep Thoughts
I was digging through the closet when I stumbled on something that I hadn’t really looked at in quite some time.
Picture it, Long Beach, 2004. My husband Robert’s work was hosting its annual Christmas party. The coveted door prize that year, airfare for two anywhere in the US. When they called his name, it is said that everyone in attendance heard him excitedly exclaim “YES!” When he returned to his seat after claiming his prize, he turned and whispered to me, “we’re going to New Orleans!” He had lived there for a spell, and its a place that I always wanted to see. So win, win.
We arrived in New Orleans on May 12, 2005. The weather was hot and humid, but with Robert playing tour guide, I was able to see the city through the lens of a former resident. Of course we walked all over the French Quarter, but we also took the streetcar out to Camellia Grill and got over to Vaughn’s to see Kermit Ruffins play [and got to eat beans and rice between sets]. We were only there for a little over a week, but it goes without saying, there is something about New Orleans that will get in your soul.
Fast forward to August, when the city was struck by tragedy when the levee system failed, resulting in major flooding of the basin. As the waters receded, it was heartbreaking to see and hear the stories from people in a city that I just visited a few months before.
I decided that I wanted to help in some, however small, way. Pulling from the negatives of the photos that I took on our trip, I made a slew of prints and enlargements. Then we set up a booth at the monthly art walk in downtown Long Beach where we raised money for the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund and the Louisiana SPCA. Granted, it wasn’t a lot, but we were able to raise a couple hundred dollars for both organizations.
Having recently returned from what is now our eighth trip back to New Orleans, it was a funny coincidence that I should re-discover several leftover unsold prints tucked away in the closet. Though I haven’t decided what I should do with the prints, it was still nice to take a moment and reflect on those photographs taken during my first trip to NOLA.