PhotoNOLA: 12/10-12/13

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Published on: December 10th, 2015

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From Robbie McClaran's
From Robbie McClaran's "Mardi Gras 1979" exhibition

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'James Black' by Chandra McCormick, part of the exhibition Ashe to Amen
'James Black' by Chandra McCormick, from the exhibition 'Ashe to Amen'

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'The Katrina Decade' exhibition, on display at the Historic New Orleans Collection. Photo by David G. Spielman
From 'The Katrina Decade' exhibition, on display at the Historic New Orleans Collection. Photo by David G. Spielman

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From Ray Laskowitz's 'Krewes, Clubs, Indians, and Brass'
From Ray Laskowitz's 'Krewes, Clubs, Indians, and Brass'

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From Ellis Marsalis III's 'Bring Back to Me – Me'
From Ellis Marsalis III's 'Bring Back to Me – Me'

The tenth annual PhotoNOLA festival will take place from December 10–13, 2015 with broad ranging photography exhibitions on display throughout the month.

PhotoNOLA is an annual festival of photography in New Orleans, coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with museums, galleries and alternative venues citywide. Showcasing work by photographers near and far, festival programming includes exhibitions, workshops, lectures, a portfolio review, gala and more. PhotoNOLA draws hundreds of photography professionals to the city to partake in a variety of educational programs, and reaches broadly into the local community with exhibitions and events that are largely free and open to the public.

Featured exhibits this year include Letitia Huckaby’s “Bayou Baroque," honoring the nuns at the Sisters of the Holy Family Mother House in New Orleans, Louisiana: an African-American congregation, founded in 1842 as servants to the youth, the poor and the elderly. Their foundress Henrietta Delille broke with the traditional placage system of colored women being placed as concubines to wealthy white men in New Orleans. Inspired by the spirit of sacrifice and faith in these women, the work in this exhibition embraces a visual vocabulary that evokes old master portraiture.

Robbie McClaran's collection of photos from Mardi Gras 1979 also looks incredibly promising-- "By a quirk of history, that same year the New Orleans Police Department staged a strike during Mardi Gras and most of the public events were cancelled. Many tourists stayed home, yet to this day some locals recall it as one the best Mardi Gras ever. This was also a time before the arrival of AIDS, and the final days of the sexual revolution. Public nudity and sexual display were pervasive and revelers eagerly performed for my camera."

Bill Yates' highly publicized collection, "Sweetheart Roller Skating Rink" has been on display at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art since early October and will remain up through mid-January. It will be the subject of a PhotoNOLA Gallery Talk on Sunday, December 13 at 2p.

Ellis Marsalis III's "Bring Back to Me – Me" combines interviews and instax prints with focus on two of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans, Leonidas and Pigeon Town, where the effects of Hurricane Katrina go beyond the cosmetic and are easily seen.

"Ashe to Amen" is a group exhibition featuring art from the shores of Africa to the city of New Orleans. Curated by Leslie King-Hammond, Ashe to Amen features twenty-eight artists, including Willie Birch, John T. Scott, Ron Bechet, Big Chief Darryl Montana, Frank Hayden, Douglas Redd and others.

The Historic New Orleans Collection marked the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with the release of the new book and exhibition "The Katrina Decade: Images of an Altered City," featuring the haunting black-and-white images of New Orleans–based photographer David G. Spielman. His photographs, seventy-seven of which are featured in the exhibition, chronicle the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the arrested processes of rebuilding and recovery that persist in many neighborhoods.

Ray Laskowitz's "Krewes, Clubs, Indians and Brass" is a collection of photographs of the second lines, Mardi Gras Indians, Baby Dolls and jazz funerals of New Orleans since 2006.

See the full list of exhibitions in 2015 PhotoNOLA.

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