Queue 'Projects-Vintage Black and White'

Vintage Black and White: I cut my documentary teeth photographing for newspapers back in the 1970s. Black and white was my medium of choice until the early 1980s. Many of the old black and whites now seem iconic. My first book project Les Cadiens d’Asteur/Today’s Cajuns was photographed in black and white. At the time,I thought I could more easily access the heart of the photograph without distractions of color. My views on the matter have changed as I have come to realize that color is a textural component that can enrich, not distract from, the image’s message. I still look back though on that early grey period with fond memories.

A tractor hauling wagons full of sugar cane travels under a canopy of live oaks near St. John Levert Sugar Mill in St. Martin Parish, LA.

J. E. Bonin, hangs on to his hoop net full of fish as he hauls them into his boat while fishing near Bayou Benoit, LA. The photograph was taken in 1978.

Walter and Effie Landry arrive at a carriage after they performed their wedding vows during a ceremony conmducted completely in French. The photograph was taken in 1975.

Claude Roy, a rice farmer from Indian Bayou, smiles after a day of harvesting his rice crop. The photograph was taken in 1978.

Gersie Hebert prepares boudin during a family boucherie at their home in Youngsville, LA

A cook stirs a gumbo in the kitchen at the Saddle Tramp Club in Church Point, LA. The gumbo was served to all the riders who participated in that day's Courir de Mardi Gras or tradition Cajun Mardi Gras run.

Ronald Cheramie and his dad Linwood talk while they trawl the local marshes for shrimp on their vintage boat. The dad once commented in an interview, "if you go out and catch a lot every day, that means you know what the shrimp are doing. I know where they're going. I'll know where they will be the next day. When I come home I'll watch the tide. You also have to watch the wind. On the day after a north wind, it's going to be a good day."

Lawrence Billiot demonstrates a blow pipe at his home in Dulac, LA. Billiot is a member of the Houma Indian Tribe based in South Louisiana.

Two deputies pose in a local store in Mamou, LA

An old billboard advertising for Albert LeBlanc Mobile Homes is still partially affixed to a billboard in Duson, LA. LeBlanc billed himself as the king of mobile homes, hence the crown.

Clifton Chenier plays the 1975 Tribute to Cajun Music, the predecessor of Lafayette's Festivals Acadiens et Creoles, in Lafayette, LA.

Freeman Fontenot, a traditional Creole Accordionist, stands on stage waiting to play for Festivals Acadians, 1981.

In 1983, Cajun Fiddler and musical pioneer, Dennis McGee was honored as Honorary Dean of Cajun Music at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana). To help commemorate the occasion be posed in a photo op with Ragin' Cajun football players. Mc Gee's career as a Cajun Fiddler was long and noteworthy. He was one of the first Cajun fiddlers to break the racial segregation barrier when he recorded with Creole accordionist Amadée Ardoin. He has also played over the years with Cajun fiddler Sady Courville.

Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee plays his first hit from 1928 for a ethnomusicology class at USL (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) in 1982. Accompanying him is Michael Doucet, a student of Mr. McGee and leader of the Cajun group Beausoleil.

Cajun Fiddlers Will and Dewey Balfa play a gig at the Woodmen of the World Hall in Basile, LA.

A young Wayne Toups poses with his father Emory Toups outside the Cajun club Clyde's Private Camp in 1978. Toups has become one Louisiana's best known Cajun musicians.

Two widows dance to a Cajun band at the Blue Moon Dance Hall in New Iberia, LA.

Chester Landry dances with his daughter Jeannelle Romero at her wedding reception held at Red's Cajun Club near Kaplan, LA. By custom, money is pinned on the bride and groom for an honor of dance on such an occasion.

Aldus Mouton, band and fan pose on the bandstand at the old Blue Moon Club, in New Iberia, LA. The club closed in 1978 and was torn down soon afterwards.

Folks gather at the Blue Moon Dance Hall in New Iberia, LA for a Sunday afternoon dance. The club closed in 1978. The building was leveled soon after.

Madame Louisianaise Daigle, a traiteur from Nina, LA near Henderson. stands by her novina candles in her home. In her day she had clients from across the U.S. as well as next door in her rural St. Martin Parish community.

While the young jockey hangs on to the reigns, owners try to calm an excited horse before the start of a race at Carencro Raceways, a bush track in Carencro, LA.

Two horses emerge from the starting gate in a scratch race at the historic bush track in Carencro, LA. The photograph was taken in 1979. The track closed in the early 1980s.

Town folks gather outside the church after a funeral service for Texas blues singer Mance Lipscomb. The photo was taken in 1977.

Folks swing out over the Whisky Chitto River on a rope swing. The name was changed in 1963 from Ouiski Chitto Creek, a native Choctaw term meaning big cane creek.

During 1972 Presidential Campaign Senator George Mc Govern campaigns with SF Mayor Joseph Alioto and Senator Hubert Humphrey. I took the photograph while a student at San Jose State University.

After his historic election to a third term as Governor in 1983, Edwin Edwards (EWE) organized a fundraising trip to Paris, France the following January 1984, inviting friends and supporters before he took office. The photograph shows EWE headed towards the Arch de Triumph as his bus makes way to the group's hotel nearby. Approximately 600 joined the Governor for a week in the City of Lights and elsewhere.

Bruce Springsteen performs at Winterland, a famed rock music hall in San Francisco, CA, in 1980.

Just as the newspaper reporter, during an interview, asked Frank Zappa about his most often asked question, the waitress chimed in "would you like grits or hashbrowns with your eggs?" Frank's answer was presented for the reporter as serendipitously as the eggs themselves. The rock star was in Dallas for a concert.

Old black and white photograph colorized for a new CD entitled Zappatite