Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Breaux Bridge; 1974; © Douglas Baz and Charles H. Traub; The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2019.0362.107

Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Breaux Bridge; 1974; © Douglas Baz and Charles H. Traub; The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2019.0362.107

September 8, 2020 to January 8, 2021
Tuesday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m.– 4:30 p.m. and Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
520 Royal Street
Admission is free.

In 1973 and ’74, two Chicago photographers spent more than six months documenting the southern Louisiana region known as Acadiana, as well as its coastal outposts to the east. The exhibition Cajun Document: Acadiana 1973–74, featuring images by Douglas Baz and Charles H. Traub never before gathered as a comprehensive exhibition, visits Louisiana towns from Welsh to Erath, Mamou to Golden Meadow, capturing everyday life in living rooms and dance halls, on fishing boats, and at rural Mardi Gras festivities, as well as a sweeping view of the region’s industries and geography. The scenes Baz and Traub preserved comprise a relic of a time and place integral to the Louisiana story.

With a foreword by John H. Lawrence and an introductory essay by the photographers, a large-format companion book of the same title, available for purchase at The Shop at The Collection, collects the images on view in the exhibition. (Learn how THNOC and The Shop at The Collection are supporting hurricane relief efforts in southwest Louisiana through sales of Cajun Document.)

This gallery exhibition closed on January 8, 2021, but Cajun Document is still avalable as a virtual exhibition and book-length catalog.

Purchase the catalog              Visit the virtual exhibition


Support hurricane relief efforts by purchasing Cajun Document

The 2020 hurricane season was particularly devastating the communities featured in Cajun Document. Southwest Louisiana was hit by Hurricane Laura on August 27, and then Hurricane Delta struck six weeks later on October 9. On October 28, Hurricane Zeta hit Louisiana's central and southeast coasts. These storms left extensive damage to a region that was also heavily impacted by the pandemic and coastal landloss.

With the support of photographers Douglas Baz and Charles H. Traub, The Historic New Orleans Collection is working with the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana to provide aid during this difficult time. For every copy of Cajun Document sold at The Shop at The Collection (THNOC's museum shop), a $10 donation will be made to the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana's Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund. CFSL's disaster grants address both immediate needs and long-term recovery. 

To learn more about CFSL, visit www.foundationswla.org. To purchase a copy of Cajun Document, which retails for $45, use the link below. Thank you for your generous support. 

Purchase Cajun Document

 


Cajun Document in the News

Follow the links below to see media coverage of Cajun Document and to watch, listen, or read interviews with the artists.

  • From WVUE, FOX 8 in New Orleans; September 22, 2020: Heart of Louisiana: Cajun Document Exhibit Watch
  • From NOLA.com; October 12, 2020: Young photographers captured vanishing Cajun culture during a trip from Chicago in the '70s Read more
  • From NOLA.com, October 12, 2020: Do you remember these faces? Archive seeks IDs for photographers' Cajun photo project Read more
  • From KRVS, 88.7 FM in Lafayette, Louisiana; November 16, 2020: Aprés Midi interview Charles H. Traub and Douglas Baz Listen
  • From SVA.edu; November 17, 2020: "Disappearing Wetlands, Climate Change and a Vanishing Folk Culture." Watch 
  • From WWNO, 89.9-FM; November 27, 2020: "The Reading Life: Douglas Baz and Charles Traub" Listen 

 


Cajun Document Video Series

This playlist from our Youtube page features stories from THNOC's Visitor Services staff and conversations with the photographers.