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Volume XXV, Number 2 Spring 2008 IN THE SPIRIT: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF MI CHAEL P. Smi TH The HistoricChief Allison New “Tootie” Orleans Montana, Collection Yellow Pocahontas, Quarterly 1 Mardi Gras Indian Tribe (2007.103.2.189) IN THE SPIRIT: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF MI CHAEL P. Smi TH onsider the following items: an audio cassette of a Mardi Gras Indian practice session; a printed schedule for the matches at Cormier’s Cock Pit in Cankton, Louisiana; stage passes to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; and photographs Cof brass bands in Santiago, Cuba. These objects represent the many and varied interests of photographer Michael P. Smith, whose archive was acquired by The Historic New Orleans Collection in 2007. Smith (b. 1937) is known especially for his closely observed and penetrating photographs of New Orleans’s home- grown musicians and the culture surrounding them. Several books exploring aspects of his photography have been published, and numerous exhibitions of his works have been presented. Smith’s photographic works— combined with his many personal appearances at conferences, concerts, and festivals around the world— have secured his legacy as both a photographer and cultural investigator. Because of a physically debilitating medical condition, Smith ceased photographing in recent years. His archive of prints, transparencies, and negatives, the core of his life’s work as a photographer, is now housed at the Williams Research Center, along with over 50 boxes of supporting materials, including personal and business papers, research notes, runs of serials, and printed ephemera. 2 Volume XXV, Number 2 — Spring 2008 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly 3 2 Volume XXV, Number 2 — Spring 2008 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly 3 Smith saw each photograph as the culmination of a process—not just the optical, mechanical, and chemical pro- cess of producing an image from an experience, but a cultural process as well. Smith’s research into the subjects he photographed made him part detec- tive, part folklorist, and part cultural anthropologist, with a profound abil- ity to capture the essence of the things he observed. For cataloguing purposes the photographs have been divided into the following subject categories: New Orleans spiritualist churches, funerals, social aid and pleasure clubs, perform- ers and performances, the Jazz & Heri- tage Festival, and Mardi Gras Indians. Although convenient for describing the variety of the work and for organizing it, these categories are nonetheless artifi- cial. Michael P. Smith’s own choice for sorting his work was not topical but lin- ear and chronological: each roll of film is numbered consecutively, and indi- vidual pictures are identified by their frame number. Though 35mm film (in both negatives and slides) is the domi- nant format in the archive, there are small pockets of work done in medium- format roll film and 4"x 5" sheet film. In keeping a chronological record of his work, Smith shows not only the rich- Binding for Baptism, Holy Family Spiritual Church, 1973 (2007.103.2.9) ness of the culture that fascinated him, but its cyclical nature and interrelated- ness. The public aspects of New Orleans music—Sunday church services, march- ing parades, Mardi Gras Indian appear- ances, festivals, and funeral proces- sions—are sprinkled throughout the cal- endar, with many of the same musicians and members of the community partici- pating in each. Set against the backdrop of distinctive neighborhoods and archi- tecture, these traditions form a unique urban identity, which Smith defined as “the cultural wetlands” of New Orleans. In an active career that spanned from the late 1960s to the early years of the 21st century, Smith devoted the greater Brass Band, Cuba, 1999 (2007.103.2.401) 4 Volume XXV, Number 2 — Spring 2008 4 Volume XXV, Number 2 — Spring 2008 Reverend Mother Lydia Gilford, 1974 (2007.103.2.62) Israelite Spiritual Church, 1973 (2007.103.4.26) “Dute” Lazard Funeral, 1995 (2007.103.2.129) The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly 5 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly 5 ures passed away, and younger genera- tions transformed existing traditions, sometimes seamlessly. The photo- graphs and supplementary materials document specific episodes of life in New Orleans, but in the aggregate they chronicle the nearly impercep- tible changes that transform culture while still maintaining traditions. For these reasons and others, Smith’s archive, though quite recent by tem- poral standards, represents a whole that cannot be effectively recreated. It is the chronicle of an era. The Michael P. Smith Archive is now available for consultation at the Williams Research Center, 410 Char- The Bucket Men Annual Parade (Sudan Social Aid and Pleasure Club), 1987 (2007.103.2.96) tres Street. Processing of the prints, part of his energies to understanding The loss of life and cultural transparencies, negatives, audio tapes, and recording—both in photographs property precipitated by Hurricane and papers is ongoing. Plans for a and on audiotapes—aspects of New Katrina and the flooding and dis- spring 2009 retrospective of Smith’s Orleans’s cultural individuality. placement that followed serve as career are underway. Additionally, he produced pho- reminders of the fragility of a cul- —John H. Lawrence tographs commissioned by others. ture. A number of the locations and As a member of the Black Star individuals in Smith’s photographs Agency, Smith accepted a wide range were affected by the storm. The of commercial assignments, taking disruption of lives and destruction him from corporate headquarters to of buildings certainly altered New BY MICHAEL P. SM ITH deep-water drilling platforms in the Orleans’s musical environment, but Gulf of Mexico. Examples of his cultural changes had been happen- All books in the following list were commercial work are also included in ing throughout the time of Smith’s published by Pelican Publishing the archive. photographic career. Important fig- Company and are available at The Shop at The Collection with the exception of A Joyful Noise, which is out of print. A Joyful Noise: A Celebration of New Orleans Music (1990) New Orleans Jazz Fest: A Pictorial History (1991) Spirit World: Pattern in the Expressive Folk Culture of African- American New Orleans (1992) Mardi Gras Indians by Michael P. Smith and Alan B. Govenar (1994) Jazz Fest Memories by Michael P. Smith and Allison Miner (1997) Roosevelt Sykes, Jazz Fest, 1973 (2007.103.2.200) 6 Volume XXV, Number 2 — Spring 2008 6 Volume XXV, Number 2 — Spring 2008 UP CO M ING EV ENT S CONCERT S IN THE COURTYAR D P RE S ENT S VA V A V OO M Winner of the Big Easy Award for Best Emerging Band of 2007 FRI D AY , JUNE 20 533 Ro y a l St R e e t • 5:30–8:00 p m FRO M THE DIRECTOR Admission is $10 at the door; free for THNOC members n a decade, New Orleans will mark its third The Collection concludes its spring series of concerts and cocktails with music century of existence. While it is obvious that by Vavavoom. Vavavoom calls its music “a synthesis of New Orleans jazz and Ithe city today is different in nearly every way the French Gypsy tradition of Django Reinhardt.” Guitarists Raphaël Bas from la Nouvelle-Orléans of the 18th century, and Pierre Pichon have been playing together since high school in Bourges, the proximity of the Mississippi River has been France. Both emigrated to the United States more than 10 years ago. Bart a constant. The river provides New Orleans’s Ramsey (piano, accordion) has performed for audiences on three continents, reason for existence, as well as a continual threat several islands, and one isthmus. Nathan Lambertson (stand-up bass) is a New to its survival. Through engineering feats that Orleans native and has played with Alvin Batiste, Nicholas Payton, Ravi Col- are hard to imagine, the threat has been miti- trane, Trombone Shorty, Steve Masakowski, David Torkanowsky, and Jason gated, but not entirely. As this is written, the Marsalis. For more information, see www.vavavoomband.com. Concerts in gates of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, closed since the Courtyard will resume in September. 1997, have once again been opened to lessen the volume of water passing through New Orleans and putting pressure on our levees. h The Crescent City’s relationship with its watery environment is explored in the current TENTH ANNUAL GENEALOGY WORK S HO P Williams Gallery exhibition, Surrounded by TRACING YOUR ITALIAN HERITAGE Water: New Orleans, the Mississippi River, and JUNE DELALIO Lake Pontchartrain (extended through Septem- SATUR D AY , AUGU S T 23 ber 20). The lake also remains a geographic anchor, with ever-changing roles—once promi- WILLIA ms RE S EARCH CENTER , 410 CHARTRE S STREET nent in the commercial development of the 8:00 a m –4:00 p m region, more recently a pleasure destination. The spillway’s release of quantities of fresh water h into Lake Pontchartrain will cause yet another change. The drop in salinity will be a temporary consequence of this act, and creatures living in or near the affected areas will accommodate the alteration in different ways. The transformations of our natural envi- ronment provide context for comprehending the struggles of humans throughout history and offer a guide to facing future challenges. Forces, both natural and unnatural, produce changes to which living creatures must adapt. As we adapt to the catastrophic changes inflicted by post-Katrina flooding and strive to protect the city from further flooding, The Historic New Orleans Collection’s mission of preserving the Tom Sancton (center) performed at the first Concert in the Courtyard, which was sponsored by Stiletto history of our lives and our region has never Vodka.

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