Initial Ideas

This summer I will be traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) for a class called Photographic Essay and Visual Narratives. Having visited the city once in 2004 (pre-Katrina) this will be a very interesting experience for me. The first thing I need to do is come up with ideas. There are countless ideas for photographing New Orleans but I need to find ideas with stories. My initial plan has been to photograph the firefighters of NOLA. I have a personal connection to this subject because I was a volunteer firefighter on the Oak Grove Fire Department for two years. Here is a photo I made while there.


I have not settled on this idea because I want to make the most of this opportunity and hanging around fire houses all day is not my idea of making the most of it. I want to explore and discover as much of New Orleans as I can in a week. What I really want to do is street photography. I would like to go to various areas of the city and surrounding areas and document the people, their surroundings and their culture. This idea will not exit my brain so I am forced to attend to it, I just need to give it a focus.

The following are a few ideas that stood out during my latest brainstorming session.

• Firehouses of NOLA - travel to and document the city's fire stations, including those that were/still are damaged or gone and those that were not damaged or have been rebuilt.
• Famous Food - visit well known eateries and photograph the building, it's surroundings, customers and the food itself. CON - expensive
• Waterfront - shooting the docks, boats and people working there and any damage/rebuilding that was done
• Fire escapes of NOLA - I've always like the aesthetic appeal of fire escapes. CON - story?
• Bourbon Street: The Morning After - While Bourbon Street is well known for its nightlife not many people have seen it in the wee hours of the morn. Interesting photos could be made of people cleaning, stragglers left over from the night, the sunrise, forgotten/abandoned objects.
• Fortune Tellers/Voodoo - These shops are found all over the city and are very unique to the area.
• Architecture - CON - too broad
• Street performers/musicians - CON - it's been done
• The Pride of the People - the people of New Orleans are very proud of their city and their heritage. This is even more evident with those that have stayed or returned during this tragic time in the city's history.
• Finished/under construction homes contrasted by neighboring FEMA trailers and destruction

Comments are welcome. More to come...