Matthew D. White Photography

2012 Grand Isle Juried Art Exhibition

2012-03-01T15:42:00.002-08:00

A 20x24 C-print of this photograph, Lake Arthur, LA, has been selected to be in this year's Grand Isle Juried Art Exhibition, April 14-22, at the Grand Isle Community Center on LA State Highway 1.

This was one of many photographs made in the town of Lake Arthur last summer, and shows my daughter Maureen and her friends, the twins Katie and Ella, looking over the bow of a boat we were on, at the edge of Lake Arthur looking up the Mermentau River. It was just one of those "moments" - in no way a planned, rehearsed or posed image. As we began entering the the river from the lake, the girls instinctively moved to the bow of the boat for the view. A heavy summer thunderstorm had hit about an hour before we got into the boat and was still clearing out; we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance, there was no wind, and we were still blocked from any direct sunlight, which provided for the eerie light (no Photoshopping or blending of multiple exposures was used for this image; exposure was 1/180 at f/16, using the 10-24mm Tamron lens). I visualized the completed image as it is here, lined it up, and pulled the shutter before the silent mood changed. It's probably my favorite shot from that particular trip, and to distinguish it from the other Lake Arthur images made, it has acquired the unofficial nickname "Heinies."

Mardi Gras 2012

2012-02-22T10:59:00.005-08:00

Just a few images from this year's Carnival season. Seen here are the Krewes of NOMTOC; Mid-City; Zulu; Okeanos, and others celebrating. Click for a larger view. More to come - enjoy.

Mardi Gras Time Again

2012-02-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty exhausting but fun day. On the Uptown parade route, on St. Charles at Josephine, I sat with my daughter and friends and watched five parades go by - Krewes of NOMTOC; Iris; Okeanos; Mid-City; and Thoth - alternately taking photos from the top of a ladder and begging for beads.

By midday I had a pile of beads around my neck so heavy that along with the camera it began to pull me forward and turned things into a real endurance test. On top of that, a cold front pulled through overnight, and although the sun came out for most of the day, the northeast breeze turned our portion of St. Charles Avenue into a wind-tunnel, with temperatures hanging around 60 or so, which feels freezing if you're a New Orleanian. Such are the hardships of Carnival season in New Orleans. Nevertheless, it was a blast that I wouldn't have missed for anything. Mardi Gras still has the power to turn the most jaded cynic into a kid again.

I shot about 100 or so decent photographs of the parades, and there's still Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras left to go.
I'll be shooting Lundi Gras festivities on the riverbank tomorrow, and we're planning to spend Mardi Gras day on Canal Street, waiting for Zulu and Rex to pass by.

I'll post some of the results here once it's all over, and I'll probably be incorporating some of these into the Travel portfolio on the regular website.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Words of Wisdom - Saul Leiter

2012-02-18T08:57:00.000-08:00

"I must admit I am not a member of the ugly school. I have a great regard for certain notions of beauty even though to some it is an old-fashioned idea. Some photographers think that by taking pictures of human misery, they are addressing a serious problem. I do not think that misery is more profound than happiness."

- Saul Leiter (b. 1923)

Pic(k) of the Week at The Pelican Bomb

2012-02-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

Local online arts magazine The Pelican Bomb posted a photograph from The End of the Great River collection this week; one of the photos that hasn't yet been exhibited, Southwest Pass, Plaquemines Parish, LA. One of my favorites from the three aerials I did over the river delta during the height of the 2010 Gulf oil spill hysteria, it shows a view of Southwest Pass, near the former site of Burrwood, with a cargo ship heading up the pass toward New Orleans.

The Pelican Bomb

More From Cheniere au Tigre

2012-01-31T20:52:00.000-08:00

Stats have shown that the Cheniere au Tigre photos have been getting quite a lot of views on this blog. For anyone seeking more from that adventure, there is a portfolio of twenty-three images on the main website, under the Projects link in the menu bar (only six are posted on this blog). Happy viewing. I am hoping to schedule another trip to Cheniere au Tigre this year, to hopefully get more images on a different kind of day weather-wise. Not that the weather was at all bad when I visited, but going back for repeat visits to places always gives another chance to get more and do better. More as this develops; visiting there is not easy and involves getting permission and transport secured. For now, here's a link to the portfolio.

Cheniere au Tigre Portfolio

Cameron Parish in Winter

2012-01-01T20:54:00.001-08:00

A few days after Christmas, my wife and I drove out to western Louisiana for some holiday bed-and-breakfast hopping, and to visit Cameron Parish, the state's largest but most sparsely-populated parish, which I have never photographed before in winter. It was warm, but down here in winter warm days are often foggy or hazy, and this presented some problems when it came time to photograph the Sabine Pass lighthouse. The sun was behind the lighthouse, a different position from the norm in other seasons, so if exposure was made for the lighthouse itself, the sky would be all blown out white. Lucky for me, the right amount of haze blew in and caused a sundog, which instantly provided the right image.

After it warmed up more that day, the haze burned off, and we made the complete drive on LA-82 from the Louisiana-Texas border all the way to Abbeville, stopping along the way at my usual spots and also finding some new ones. The running joke that day was making fun of Weather Channel photographer-beefcake Peter Lik, who has succeeded only in turning landscape photography and Photoshopping into a high-adrenaline contact sport. Anytime myself or my wife saw a potential photograph and needed to stop the truck, we'd yell out Lik's catch phrase, "It's a gallery shot!!!" One place I revisited was a tree line along Trosclair Road near Rutherford Beach; for some reason this simple line of trees in front of the marsh has always caught my eye. (See earlier post "Same Place Four Years Later")

I think the third time was the charm, and after five years of shooting in Cameron Parish I got the look I was satisfied with...until the next time I visit.

Website Reconstruction/Fujis

2011-12-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

My website has been revamped/reconstructed/updated, more user-friendly/simplified; and I put up a new portfolio of Fujichrome positives - fabulous color positive ASA-50 film. I always take the Canon F1 with me, and these are some curious ones I've collected in the past five years. I still have two rolls of Fujichrome shot at Cheniere au Tigre, but I'm keeping them secret for a while...

Exhibition at Hubbell Library - Prospect New Orleans

2011-10-10T12:50:00.001-07:00

As part of Prospect New Orleans (Prospect.2), the largest biennial of international contemporary art in the United States, I am having a solo exhibition of my work at the Hubbell Library, 225 Morgan Street in Algiers Point, October 22, 2011 through January 29, 2012, with a presentation on December 13th at 6PM.

I will feature Louisiana Coast images from the years 2007-2011, and will also feature nine brand new prints from this year's excursion to Cheniere au Tigre and the Rainey Wildlife Refuge, made just for this event.

The exhibition is also being co-sponsored by PhotoNOLA (December 8-11).

http://www.prospectneworleans.org/

Barataria Preserve, Jean Lafitte, LA

2011-09-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Settled by Native Americans perhaps as long as 2,000 years ago and

later the haunt of privateer and smuggler Jean Lafitte and his Baratarians,

the preserve near the town of Jean Lafitte, only 30 minutes from

New Orleans, still maintains a sense of mystery and quietude; a perfect

escape from the city on a weekend afternoon.

White Lake, Vermilion Parish

2011-08-11T08:48:00.001-07:00

There are few available images of White Lake in Vermilion Parish,
Louisiana, and it's easy to see why; no roads lead to it.
There is no marina or park anywhere around it.
Yet web image searches for White Lake
seem pretty common; it's seven miles wide north to south,
and about fourteen miles wide east to west; it's pretty big.
Maybe everyone wants to just be sure it's there.

So here it is...

I managed to get to its shore one cool and windy morning in mid-March 2008,
where I was only able to stay a few minutes and snap the three
images you see below before beating a quick retreat to Pecan Island.
White Lake appears shallow, extremely muddy, and chock loaded
with oil and gas infrastructure. Zooming in on the images
shows rigs everywhere on the horizon, perhaps four or
five miles offshore.

So here they are - currently the only ground-level photos of White Lake available on the web.
Click for larger view.
(Reminder: do not download or use without permission!!)

Lake Arthur, LA

2011-07-26T08:49:00.001-07:00

Lake Arthur, in Jefferson Davis Parish, is another spot on Louisiana's long list
of well-kept secrets. With a population hovering around 3,000 residents,
it is the quintessential southern small town, and is a very charming and very
photogenic spot. I first visited it in 2006, taking the long way home from
another one of my trips out into the Cameron Parish prairie.

Lake Arthur is technically a lake, but seems more or less a widening of the
Mermentau River, making its way south, down to the Gulf of Mexico at Grand
Chenier in Cameron Parish. Along the way, the water flows through various lakes

in places where it widens.

The anonymous young girls in the images here are my daughter
and the daughters of a New Orleans friend, who invited us to spend a night at
his family camp along the lake. As you can imagine,
Lake Arthur is a terrific spot for a quiet family respite.

Plaquemines Parish in June

2011-07-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

Images from a summer day in lower Plaquemines Parish, June 2011.

Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary

2011-06-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

The Rainey Sanctuary makes up the wetland area north of Cheniere au Tigre,
leading up to Intracoastal City, where I was picked up daily by boat. Rainey gives
what is probably the best picture of what most of
Louisiana's coast looked like before countless canals were dug through the marsh,
upsetting the saltwater balance and eating up land.
There were vast areas of healthy wetlands as far as the eye could see,
and at the southernmost reaches of the sanctuary (second image from top),
the boat anchored in another "keyhole" canal, I could see the Gulf of Mexico
just beyond the scant tree line marking the coast. Even though the photo was taken
from half a mile off the coast, I could still hear the waves hitting the shore,
with a steady south wind carrying the sound toward me. The sanctuary is
as large and impressive as it is relatively silent - the closest comparison might
be the Everglades.
For most of the day, the only sound I heard was the steady low hiss of south winds
blowing through the endless marsh grass.

(Click images for larger view)

Cheniere au Tigre II

2011-05-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Just a few images from Cheniere au Tigre, taken May 21.

Cheniere au Tigre

2011-05-25T20:30:00.004-07:00

Thanks to the National Audubon Society and Timmy Vincent, I was finally able to make it to Cheniere au Tigre, Louisiana's lost paradise in rural Vermilion Parish, on the Gulf of Mexico. Walking the fabled cheniere and the beach it sits near was an incredible experience. I'm currently working up photos from the trip along with a batch from the Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary, which sits on adjacent land. I'm kind of at a loss for words to describe the thoughts I had during this shoot, but I've come back from the trip with the determination not to ever exploit this place or the memories of the people who once lived off the land here, as well as their descendants, who still own the land and visit here frequently. It's an incredible place.

Cheniere au Tigre presents itself as a large ridge of live oaks, just yards from the Gulf of Mexico; the high ground appeared to be about 10-12 feet above sea level. We got there by canals that were cut ages ago, coming south from Intracoastal City and through the Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary, making a few 90-degree turns, like steps, before landing at a dead-end "keyhole" canal that serves as the non-beach entrance at about the central point on the cheniere. Walking this historic ridge, which is about two miles end-to-end and bisected by a dirt road wide enough for an ATV or single vehicle, you can hear the gulf waves hitting the shore while a cool sea breeze blows through the canopy of monstrous live oak trees - what I imagined was the most attractive feature for those who lived there in the past. The cheniere does its own air conditioning; it was hot, windy, and muggy out in the marsh canals as we approached, but once on the cheniere it was relatively cool and breezy. Although I saw four active "camps" built by present-day landowners, there was virtually no trace of the former way of life there. The old resort, which closed in the late 1930's, was completely gone, washed away by Hurricane Rita in 2005, along with the remnants of other past homesteads. The cemetery is still there and intact, but not decorated with seashells on the graves as it has been before. Hurricane surges knocked down the fence which surrounds the cemetery, but the graves were still there - most notably Dr. Raphael Sagrera, who first settled the cheniere, as well as some of his descendants. A mile or so west on the cheniere I found the brick foundation of the old school house. Timmy and I also travelled east along the beach for several miles to the breakwaters which were placed offshore and have actually created a wider beach where they sit.

Only two others were at Cheniere au Tigre that day; Danny Sagrera, (if I understand correctly, Dr. Raphael Sagrera would be his great-great uncle), and his wife Julie, who came for the weekend to camp and plant trees. After talking with them about their past visits, their families, and the history of the cheniere, it was obvious to me that this place is sacred ground for the families who settled it, and that it should remain that way, privately. This is a beautiful place, and the last thing anyone should do with it is turn it into a public campground, park, or any kind of "attraction". They don't mind the odd visitor; in fact, the Sagreras welcomed me and were very kind, but the last thing they'd want is a road built here, and they're right. There was apparently talk in the 1970's of building such a road and turning Cheniere au Tigre into a state park, but no landowner was interested in selling. All I could think about walking the cheniere were the families who lived here in the past, who were willing to rise up every day, work hard and cook every meal; the children who walked the path to school and climbed the oak trees; the cattle drives; the vacationers who took the three-hour boat ride here in the 1920's-30's to escape the city heat and to take the cure of swimming in the mineral-rich gulf waters. Their spirits are still very much alive at Cheniere au Tigre, and their memories need to be treated respectfully. Danny and Julie said that if all went well and they could get a well dug and some solar panels hooked up to their camp, maybe someday they'd leave city living behind and settle permanently on the cheniere, opting out of the "system" and getting back to a more simple but more rewarding way of life.

Bonnet Carre Spillway Opening

2011-05-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Bonnet Carre Spillway in Norco, LA has been opened in advance of the Mississippi River flood water that is now moving south of Memphis and headed for Louisiana. Reports say that there is more water in the river now than any other time in modern history, and it's coming this way. Later this week, officials also plan to open the Morganza Spillway, which will divert the river to the Atchafalaya Basin, flooding Morgan City instead of New Orleans.
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

If the Morganza Floodway is not opened to funnel 300,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River basin, the additional water could cause levees to fail along the river from Morganza to Plaquemines Parish, including all of the New Orleans area, resulting in as much as 25 feet of floodwater, according to a map provided to state officials by the Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday.

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2011

2011-05-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

This year's Jazz Fest was notable for being the first festival in nine years where it never rained on any day. The weather was gorgeous; low humidity, few clouds, cool breezes. (Nevermind that we're in a drought here and haven't seen rain in over 30 days.) Nevertheless, it was a blast. Thanks to Matt Goldman and Elise Gallinot for ensuring photographer's access this past Thursday.

Performers, top to bottom:
Amanda Shaw

Lucinda Williams

Little Freddie King

Robert "Bilbo" Walker

Fi-Yi-Yi and the Mandingo Warriors

Gulf Oil Spill Anniversary

2011-04-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

One year ago this week, the BP/Macondo well experienced a major blowout, some 50 miles southeast of Port Eads, Louisiana, sinking the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon and killing 11 workers. For the entire summer we watched oil wash up on Gulf Coast beaches. I made a good handful of trips to the coast to photograph the mess; here are some of those images. There is also a feature at the Wonderful Machine blog about my experiences there as well as an oil spill gallery at my main website.

Visiting Grand Isle yesterday, we found that Grand Isle State Park's beaches are still closed, as well as Elmer's Island, and Fourchon Beach, where cleanup is still going on, picking up tar balls from the BP spill, as well as a more recent "minor" spill in Louisiana's West Bay (near Southwest Pass) which happened when a Houston oil company was trying to plug one of their wells.

Grand Isle

2011-04-16T14:54:00.001-07:00

Off to Grand Isle tomorrow morning for closing day of this year's juried art exhibition.

I am curious to see how this year's art will reflect the chosen theme, "Land/Currents/Undercurrents" with regards to the BP spill. When I delivered our pieces a few weeks ago, I was hoping to use the afternoon for photography, but the sky was a dull flat grey, and it was certainly no day for photography, so I took a long walk on the beach anyway. They are still cleaning up last year's oil. Tar balls still wash up daily, and the beach is constantly being sifted by these Zamboni-type vehicles that pick up sand and separate out the tar balls or other oily things. The beach appears nice, but you know there's gunk just a few inches below. At least the smell is gone. I wonder if the annual tarpon rodeo will be on this year...

Same Place Four Years Later

2011-03-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

I tend to revisit my favorite spots if I feel like trying for a "remake" of a

photograph. This is one example. The place here is on Trosclair Road

near Rutherford Beach Road in Cameron Parish. The first time I visited

this spot, in May 2006, the tree line just caught my eye, so I pulled over

for a shot, resulting in the bottom image. The trees were still in saltwater

shock from Hurricane Rita, which had struck Cameron Parish in September

2005; the leaves haven't grown back all the way yet. At the height of

Rita's fury, the water here would have been up 15 feet from the trees' bases.

You can also see the man whose land the trees stand on,

tending to the garden to the right with his

granddaughter (barely visible at lower right). I asked his permission

to photograph his trees, and after he said 'sure' I made two exposures

and quietly left.

Four years later (June 2010, image at top) I visited the same spot out of a desire to get more of the tree line in, again making just two quick exposures. Although I was happier with the trees

this time - I missed the old man. There was no sign of him or his trailer on the other side of the

road, put there after Rita took his house. I haven't found out anything about what happened to

him, and when I asked about him in Cameron later that day, no one could tell me anything.

Grand Isle Juried Art Exhibition

2011-03-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

This April will mark the sixth year in a row I have had work selected
to be in the annual Grand Isle Juried Art Exhibition (April 9-17, at the
community center in Grand Isle).

Last year I won the Award of Excellence for a large print of my photograph
"Cheniere Caminada August 2009"; a lucky moment on a 100F day where the
light was at my back, facing toward the historic cheniere. (This image is
viewable in the Gulf Coast gallery at my website.) This year, we decided
to make it a family event, so Shannon and I made a little joint husband/wife piece,
and luckily it was selected by the juror for the exhibition.
"Elmers Island 2010" combines a large canvas print of an aerial photo
taken of Elmer's Island last summer while photographing the BP oil spill.
I stretched the canvas over a large wood panel, and then nailed in other
canvas prints of black and white 35mm photos taken of Grand Isle and
other areas over the years. Shannon and I just sort of talked our way
through making it, and once we agreed on the visualization of the whole
thing I put it all together.

My 6-year-old daughter, Maureen, also made her own acrylic painting
of a pelican and eggs which was selected for the children's exhibition, seen

above.

As is our yearly tradition, we will be headed down to Grand Isle for
the exhibition on closing day, and grabbing some oysters at Toupsie's
in Port Fourchon on the way home. It's always a great trip, and I look
forward to it as much as I look forward each year to Jazz Fest or Mardi Gras.

Three Views of the Crescent City Connection

2011-03-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Early morning, view is from the east bank looking toward
Algiers/Gretna. Weather in New Orleans has been beautiful lately.

Mardi Gras Faces

2011-03-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

All of these images were made at the Zulu and Rex parades
the morning of Mardi Gras (March 8th), on St. Charles Avenue,
near Josephine Street. (Click any photo to enlarge.)

Mardi Gras 2011

2011-03-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

A few shots from the Rex parade yesterday morning on St. Charles Ave.
Despite threatening skies,
it never rained on any parades. (Click image for large view):

Lundi Gras

2011-03-06T20:24:00.001-08:00

Going downtown for tomorrow's Lundi Gras festivities on the
Riverwalk, hoping to see the arrival of Rex. Camera will be along
for all the fun. I'm hoping the next few days will yield some good
Mardi Gras images for the archives, and I plan to accomplish this
while still having FUN.

Weather is looking fine and spring-like for the remainder of Mardi Gras,
in contrast to last year's deep freeze.
The price paid for the good weather ahead was
having Endymion rained out yesterday, forcing them
to roll on the Uptown route a day later, much to the dismay of Mid-City folks.

For Fat Tuesday we plan to watch Zulu and Rex on St. Charles Ave.;
I'll try to get some shots up here in a few days or so.
Happy Mardi Gras!

Project With Audubon Society

2011-02-20T19:54:00.000-08:00

The Audubon Society contacted me this week to give an OK for a proposal
I sent them a while back. Looks like in May, they will be taking me deep
into the Vermilion Parish outback for a shoot of the
Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Refuge. I'd been scheming on this for some time,
and was unable to find a way.
I was once scheduled in 2007 to take a trip by small boat to Cheniere au Tigre
with a man from Vermilion Parish, but on the day of our trip the wind
really picked up (it was March) and it would
have made for a raw and dangerous ride, so we backed out and spent the
day on the Intracoastal Waterway and some surrounding
bayous running through Vermilion.

But now I'll be heading down into this rarely-seen corner of Louisiana
in May, when things are grown in
and green, and the summer "muggies" will just be starting,
with Audubon as my guides.
More details on this as it develops.

New Blog/First Post

2011-01-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

First post on a new blog for me. My old one, rigolets.blogspot.com, has been deleted.

At any rate, I have recently signed on with Wonderful Machine as new representation.
I'm excited about the future and hope this will prove to be a rewarding partnership.
http://www.wonderfulmachine.com/