“My journey to the Crescent City is never complete without a visit to the soulful heart of your creations. You excel in connecting and enhancing. Your gift is to stimulate the deepest place with sacred revelry and to bring a sense of place simultaneously. You are one of my living heroes.”
– Brenda Ladd, photographer, Austin TX
Snug Harbor
A Moveable Feast: The Essence of New Orleans in Elements of Art & Architecture
A Moveable Feast consists of architectural assemblages featuring stark black and white photographs of seemingly ordinary scenes that New Orleanians often take for granted. The architectural elements that make up the assemblages come from the discarded pieces of New Orleans’ homes which Porché West finds as he travels the city in search of the soulfulness’ that exudes from every person, place and thing. It is this that Porché West portrays through this exhibit.
“I use my camera to capture the soul of New Orleans in the faces and places. Visitors crave a look into life in New Orleans, and they can see this not only through my photographs but also through the architectural assemblages that house these pictures. I like to exhibit my work in places that have a feel of real New Orleans – places where people live, work and play. I want my audience to visualize what my work looks like in a real living space and what it might look like in their own.”
The uniqueness of each piece is captured first in the photography, and then expanded via the assemblage that houses it. Each assemblage is what the artist describes as a milestone moment – preservation of a particular image captured at the moment – and then encased in the architectural elements of a time gone by in New Orleans. “Preservation with shellac,” he calls it.
“There are elements of soul in our architecture. Much of it has been here longer than we have and will be here long after we’re gone. This is an old city and many lives have passed through each of these homes. We are only stewards of these ‘vessels of the soul,’ here temporarily to preserve that past and bring it in all its integrity into the future,” says the artist.
All of these photographs dwell in their own “Petites Maisons” made up of the many pieces of gingerbread, cypress moulding, arches, window frames, stained glass, pine or cypress floor boards, cypress window transoms, household items such as spoons, kitchen tools, or the many discarded architectural elements and things of everyday life that are left behind when houses are torn down or renovated. Several exhibit pieces are mounted on column-styled easels built from larger discards, making them sculpture-like in design.
“One of the things that we revere most in this city is our identity. We are grounded by the fact that a sense of place matters. It’s what visitors here pick up on immediately and what often brings them back, and what keeps most residents from ever leaving, or if we do leave, sooner or later we return. That’s what I’ve tried to capture with this exhibit,” says Porché West.
WWOZ 2000 Calendar
New Orleans La Ville Creole
Why do people love New Orleans so much? Tourists descend upon New Orleans for the fabulous restaurants, smoky jazz halls and the bounty of good times the city promises. While these things may explain why people keep coming back to New Orleans, these are not the reasons why locals fiercely defend the city, no matter what; why folks hate to leave town and when away complain constantly of having to “get back to my house.” Even people who have never been to New Orleans perk up a little when you say you’re from there. Everyone outside of New Orleans is trying to get there at least once before they die.
Tourists and locals love New Orleans for very different reasons: they occupy two separate worlds and it isn’t often that those worlds meet. The city scenes captured by Christopher Porché West’s photography illustrate the New Orleans that locals love. New Orleans La Ville Creole consists of 35 photos that have been featured in the 2000 calendar for WWOZ, the nationally renowned cradle of New Orleans music and culture. Porché-West, an award-winning photographer known for his portraits of the Mardi Gras Indians has made a slight departure from the vibrant colors and kinetic dynamics that characterize his previous work. In dramatic black and white tones, Porché-West’s latest work captures the subtle, more solemn spirit of the city: the sense of strength, joy and resilience that sustains New Orleans and her people.
Few of Porché West’s latest images reflect the cursory, conventional New Orleans. Storefronts, churches and statuary – Porché West’s stoops reflect the timeless communal aspects of many sleepy Southern towns. But a closer look reveals a uniquely New Orleans story: the careful commitment we make to tending our graves; devotion to the saints; corner eateries that sell ‘cowain’ and ‘ya-ca-mein’. A young woman with a baby stands boldly in white against a cloudy sky, and cut-off jeans drying in the sun are reminiscent of the Crescent City’s endless summer days. Even in his occasional return to New Orleans standards, Porché West manages to find sublime, intimate moments. The tender vulnerability of two young Mardi Gras Indians contrasts sharply with the complexity of the tradition they carry. A grand marshal, usually the regal sharp-stepping head of the jazz procession, rests reflectively in a church pew. A cadre of street revelers advances pointedly on their way, serious about their fun and all about a good time. Porché West’s New Orleans understands struggle and has seen its share of hard times. But there are no tragedies here and we are not a people who dwell in self-pity.
Exhibitions
Odd Works, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA (2008)
Santiago de Cuba: ReBirth & Congas en la Calle, McKenna Museum of African American Art, New Orleans, LA (2008)
Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, Tampa, FL (2008)
Contemporary Arts and Crafts Showcase, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (2008)
Regards sur la Nouvelle Orleans (Visions of New Orleans), French Ministry of Culture, Saint Honoré, Paris, France (2007)
Contemporary Arts and Crafts Showcase, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (2007)
Fresh Art Festival, Arts Council of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA (2006) – Award of Merit
Unforgotten Souls – New Orleans, Haiti, Cuba, Liberia, 333 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA (2006)
Sausalito Arts Festival, Sausalito, CA (2006) – 1st Place Mixed Media
Coconut Grove Art Festival, Coconut Grove, FL (2006)
Contemporary Arts and Crafts Showcase, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (2006)
From Louis XIV to Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Tapestry, The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA (2006)
La Louisiane, del la Colonie Francais a l’Etat Américain, Mona Bismark Foundation, Paris, France (2006)
The Darkroom, New Orleans Center for Photographic Arts, New Orleans, LA (2005)
Contemporary Arts and Crafts Showcase, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (2005)
Haiti Cherie: 200 Years of Haitian Independence, Alliance Francaise, New Orleans, LA (2005)
Contemporary Arts and Crafts Showcase, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (2004) – Best Display
Haiti Cherie: 200 Years of Haitian Independence, Alliance Francaise, New Orleans, LA (2004)
Galerie Laurent Herschtritt, Paris, France (2003)
L’ame Creole: Visages de la Nouvelle-Orleans et Haiti, Alliance Francaise, Paris, France (2003)
Remembrance: A Memorial of the 911 Anniversary, Pan American Life Building, New Orleans, LA (2002)
A Moveable Feast: The Essence of New Orleans in Elements of Art & Architecture, International House, New Orleans, LA (2002)
Fresh Art Festival, Arts Council of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA (2001)
Louisiana Marketplace, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (2001)
Friends of Haiti, Barrister’s Gallery, New Orleans, LA (2000)
Exploring Assemblage in New Orleans, Barrister’s Gallery, New Orleans, LA (2000)
Haiti Cherie, Haitian Association for Human Development, New Orleans, LA (2000)
Love and Death in Louisiana, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Grandstand, New Orleans, LA (2000)
Kentuck Festival of the Arts, Northport, AL (1999)
Best Display, Contemporary Arts and Crafts Showcase, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (1999)
Louisiana Marketplace, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA (1998)
Native Visions, Galerie Royal, New Orleans, LA (1998)
Folk Arts of Louisiana, Festival International de Louisiane, Lafayette, LA (1998)
A View From New Orleans, L’Atelier Piroska, New Orleans, LA (1997)
You See What I Say, State Black Archives, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (1997)
The Mardi Gras Indians, Mardi Gras Museum, Gallstone, TX (1997)
The Power of the Needle and Thread, New Orleans Center, New Orleans, (1995)
You See What I Say, La Belle Gallerie, New Orleans, LA (1995)
New Orleans Views, Atrium Gallery, Sheraton Hotel, New Orleans, LA
Jazz Fest and Heritage, Indigo Nights, New Orleans, LA
Mardi Gras Indians, Tilden Foley Gallery, New Orleans, LA (1981)
Architecture for People: A Social Message, Lyceum Theatre, San Diego, CA (1980)
Wine History of the Santa Cruz Mountains, The Octagon, Santa Cruz County Historical Museum, Santa Cruz, CA (1980)
Creoles of Color: A Vanishing Louisiana Legacy, Merrill College, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA (1980)
Light Works, Studio Gallery, Santa Ana, CA (1980)
South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, CA (1980)
Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Laguna Beach, CA (1980)
Local Scenes, City Hall, New Orleans, LA (1980)
The Center for Creative Photography, San Juan Capistrano, CA (1978)
Collections
Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Historic New Orleans Collection, Archives and Manuscripts, New Orleans, LA
New Orleans Museum of Art, Photography Collection, New Orleans, LA
Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
National Black Music Hall of Fame, New Orleans, LA
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, New Orleans, LA
University of California at Santa Cruz, Special Collections, Santa Cruz, CA
University of California at San Diego, Art and Architecture Collections, San Diego, CA
Portfolios
Quick Look