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A life sentence means life at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Because Louisiana has some of the toughest sentencing laws in the country, more than 85 percent of the 5,100 prisoners at Angola are expected to die there. Until the hospice program was created in 1998, prisoners died mostly alone and unattended in Angola’s prison hospital. But its nationally recognized hospice program, run by one staff nurse and a team of prisoner volunteers, has changed that. Grace Before Dying is inspired by the volunteers, staff and patients involved with Angola’s hospice program. They have discovered that humanity and courage are possible even in an environment designed to isolate and punish. Grace Before Dying has received a Distribution Grant from the Documentary Photography Project of the Open Society Institute to create a traveling exhibition featuring “Grace Before Dying”. The exhibit is currently traveling to prisons in Louisiana and Mississippi as well as to special conferences. For more information: . Grace Before Dying was nominated for the 2009 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. It was a finalist for the 2008 Aperture West Book Prize. It also won the 2007 PhotoNOLA Review Prize. Images from Grace Before Dying were exhibited at Kiang Gallery, Atlanta GA in June 2008. Prints are 20.5” X 46” pigment prints on 100% cotton rag; editions of 8.
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The photographs in Love and Concrete look at life along North Claiborne Avenue, from Faubourg Tremé neighborhood through the Ninth Ward. The neighborhoods along the avenue provided the cultural and community roots that created brass bands, jazz funerals and Mardi Gras Indians. It was one of the wealthiest African American business districts in the country. The centerpiece of this vibrant and prosperous neighborhood was the wide and shady Claiborne Avenue where dozens of century-old live oak trees lined the street. But the city cut down the trees in the 1960’s and replaced them with hundreds of massive concrete columns that support the I-10’s eight-lane overpass. The overpass was built to facilitate automobile access to the new outlying suburbs; but it also contributed to the economic demise of the Tremé. Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in the Tremé and the Ninth Ward. During the flood, the bridges, overpasses and on-ramps became islands for thousands of stranded people waiting to be evacuated. These days, as in the pre-Katrina days, thousands gather amid the concrete columns to celebrate Mardi Gras, play games, or set up small vending booths to earn some money. As I take pictures of these important and ordinary events, I feel both the pinch of painful memories and the embrace of life’s poetry – a duality that embodies the bittersweetness of life in New Orleans. I continue to think about New Orleans as an island, with bridges standing irresolutely as either a link or a barrier to the rest of Louisiana and the country. The concrete is probably innocent, of course. Its use and functionality depends on our intentions, politics, fears and hopes. Love and Concrete was shown at the New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery for PhotoNOLA in 2007. It is also a traveling exhibition with 21 - 17” X 36” framed pieces and is available for bookings. Love and Concrete prints are 17” X 36” pigment prints on 100% cotton rag paper; editions of 12.
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Uncomfortable Silence (2005-2006) is an attempt to photograph the scarred but familiar places in cities and towns deserted after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Flood debris has become as much a part of the landscape as the live oak trees that line our streets. The invasive presence of FEMA trailers into every neighborhood and rural bayou creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and impermanence. The residents themselves, who have lost so much, add their own objects of resilience and humor to the deserted landscape.
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I began photographing life at night in African cities and towns in 2000. I will continue this project every chance I get. The photographs were taken in Angola, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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