Confusion almost reigns
Nobody’s slept
Nobody’s sober
It’s 12:45 PM and
the fun
is just beginning

Parades at Voodoo took on a very local vibe. Here are Social Aid & Pleasure Club members, a brass band, the Noisician Coalition and other groups getting ready to march around the Voodoo grounds on Saturday. — Bryan Davis

“I’ve got 3 things to say. One, I believe in God? Do you?”

Crowd goes wild.

“Second: This is all about you. I’m nothing without you, my fans. So give it up for yourselves.”

Crowd goes crazy.

“Third, I’m registered to vote!”

Crowd goes beserk.

“Now, for this next song, all you over here (gestures right) say ‘Fuck bitches!.’ All you over here say, ‘Get money!’”

Crowd starts repeating chant except for me who has fallen over laughing.

Ah New Orleans the sacred and the profane.

What came first for you, music or photography?

I guess music. A lot of folks in my family sing, play guitar, play drums. There was always music in my life. I started playing drums when I was 14. Photography came to me in college. I’d always been playing drums, always been playing some sort of percussive thing. When I went to college, I sold my drum set, and found the shift in what I was seeing, as far as the art in my life, was more images instead of playing music. I saw a TV in a ditch one time walking out of my apartment in college.

LSU?

LSU. From that point on, I was like, “I need to get rid of my f***ing TV.” Got rid of the TV, got my dad’s old ‘81 camera, and started shooting random sh*t in Baton Rouge. That was, like, ‘97.

Did you major in photography?

I finished out in broadcast journalism.

Mine too.

Yeah? I started writing, putting packages together, video packages. Started to do that and then realized I wanted to do photography more. I just mentored with a lot of people. Any photographer that was in town that I knew, I’d watch them do their darkroom, watch them do a print, and then call them with questions. Basically taught myself. Turned my bathroom into a darkroom, showered in my next door neighbor’s house. And I taught myself until I realized there were a lot of technical things that I needed. So I went to this workshop in Montana, Rocky Mountain School, like three months intensive. Basically polished up the things I needed to know. But any monkey can work a camera. It’s how you take the environment around you and put it through the camera which makes it unique. So with that, I got the more technical part.

Who influenced you?

Herman Leonard, I worked with him through the years. I was his lighting assistant. He was definitely a big influence on me as I started to break out and do live music photography, portraits. Definitely helped me to make the connection with the person I’m photographing, have them relax and have them feel loved. Basically that’s what he taught me — how to connect, and solidified that the camera’s just a piece of plastic.

Tell me a little about your concurrent projects: Rotary Downs, Canary Gallery, Photo Alliance, Academy of Fine Arts … am I missing anything?

This. (Gestures around) I do a lot of sh*t like this. Coming out, doing portraits on the street. My client base ranges. Shot Hermes’ 2009 Mardi Gras throws, sh*t like that to pay the bills. But the things I’m really involved in, that move me — Canary, showing artists, underexposed artists, from New Orleans and the Southeast. I’m from Lafayette, so I like to show southwest Louisiana artists also. That’s definitely going to be a venue to throw some good parties, get like minds together in different mediums.

And you’ve been teaching at the academy for, what, five years?

The academy, yeah, five or six years. Started out as a darkroom tech there. Proposed a class called New Orleans at Night, which teaches people long exposure photography, nighttime photography and concert photography, which is what I was doing. Started with that, and now I’m doing digital classes, fundamentals, environmental portraiture and night photography. So I’m pretty busy.

Tell me about your involvement with the Photo Alliance.

The Photo Alliance means a lot, because what that mission is, it kind of goes with my philosophy of photography, which is that if you erase the competition in art, in business and in commerce, you open all the doors and all the paths to sharing information. And when you share information, you progress as a whole and as an individual. The Photo Alliance, after the storm, solidified all these different photographers working in different areas under one umbrella. Like, “Let us help you. From the person who wants to frame a photograph to go on their grandma’s wall to the person looking to get in touch with the director of the Guggenheim — we can help you do that.” It’s just giving people opportunity. Because a lot of people don’t have the voice, or a good foot forward, and they just need a little help. I plan the fundraisers. PhotoNOLA, the last two years, have been a good party. But this year, NOMA has signed on with us to host it. So I got Preservation Hall to be the band, Fleur de Tease is gonna do a number, food from amazing local restaurants, and drinks. (That’s) the first Thursday or Friday of December. The more money we make, the more resources we can give people. 

Does being in a band help you to shoot bands?

In a way. The only way that it does help is that musicians feel more comfortable with me, knowing that I’m not gonna make them look stupid. I’m not gonna put them against a brick wall, or in front of a chain-link fence, or a railroad. That’s the trifecta. (Laughs) There are some great photos out there like that. So they know I’m not gonna do sh*t like that. We do have a rapport. Anytime you can talk to someone about what they’re into, relate, it opens up. Brings down walls. Like I said, technically, it’s just a box. You get up there, interact, make things happen.

You seem to have a knack for being in just the right place at the right time during a show.

It does help, knowing composition and being a freak for it. If you hold the composition and know the lighting director, you’ve got all these different elements that are already on lockdown, then all you need to do is let them do their thing. But you can feel music. Just being in the pit at Tipitina’s for all these years.

You’re the house photographer, correct?

They have a couple of house photographers, but I’m one of them. But just being in that pit, being in between that huge energy — the crowd, the musicians — being able to know the song and know the music and see what happens next, you kind of wait for it. If I have all my technical sh*t down, I just wait for them to be in that moment. (French photojournalist) Henri Cartier-Bresson said, “The decisive moment.” The decisive moment doesn’t just happen; you’re waiting for it. That’s your path. So it’s basically just like that, live music. You know what’s going to happen already. You’re just waiting for it to lock down.