New Orleans - emmanuel nataf

I traveled to New Orleans in March 2019, my first time in a Southern state. While I initially struggled with the striking number of homeless people on the streets, I ended up loving NOLA — a unique city full of soul.

The City that forgot to care*

One of the things I hate to see is homeless people on the streets in one of the most “advanced” and rich countries in the world. And in NOLA there was way too much of that — it made me sick to my stomach and I was wondering why I got on a plane to witness that.

While some photographers find homeless people to be interesting subjects, it’s not really my thing so you won’t see more of that on this page. Luckily though, there’s so many beautiful things about New Orleans that at some point, you manage to forget a little bit about that and start enjoying the city. And it’s a bit of new world if you’ve never been there before.

*the original expression is “The City that Care Forgot,” as a reference to the hot and humid summer months, where people were often found sitting out on their porches hoping to catch whatever kind of breeze there was. They didn’t care about going to the store, preparing dinner, cleaning the house, and almost anything. All they really want to do is to cool off. Source.

The bands and the musicians

The interesting thing I learned about the music scene in NOLA was that people are part of multiple bands — they’d play with one in the morning and another in the evening. Bands seemed to always be reshuffling.

The architecture

Creole townhouses are perhaps the most iconic pieces of architecture in the city of New Orleans, comprising a large portion of the French Quarter and the neighboring Faubourg Marigny. Creole townhouses were built after the Great New Orleans Fire (1788), until the mid-19th century. (Wikipedia)

Outside of the French quarter, things already looked quite different…

“The Big Easy”

NOLA has a laid-back reputation that you can clearly feel everywhere on the streets.

You’re too cool NOLA :).

The Harouni Gallery

“If you paint the eyes, you’re giving everything away already,” told me David Harouni when I asked him why his characters had no eyes. Here’s some of the paintings from his gallery, which was for me one of the highlights of Royal Street in the French Quarter.

And here’s the man behind those amazing paintings and sculptures, David Harouni.

I met David thanks to Judge, who allowed me to take his portrait first:

The plantations

The plantations are about 30 minutes outside of NOLA. Tours are organized for tourists. As read in a National Geographic piece, “the inability to imagine is part of the luxury of this tour.”

Life expectancy in the plantations was short — only 7 to 9 years. There’s no joy in visiting a plantation.

Here’s a few photos from the Oak Alley Plantation.