When the music no longer hangs in the air, when the applause at the end of a performance has faded, and when the casket has found its final repose, Michael Smith’s work remains as a touchstone.
In the Spirit
The Photography of Michael P. Smith from the Historic New Orleans Collection
with essays by Jason Berry, Dan Cameron, John H. Lawrence, and Jude Solomon
A collection of Smith’s documentary photographs from the “cultural wetlands” of New Orleans
In the Spirit: The Photography of Michael P. Smith from the Historic New Orleans Collection
HNOC 2009
softcover • 9" × 10" • 110 pp.
50 b&w images
ISBN 978-0-917860-54-6
$24.95
The photographs, field recordings, journals, correspondence, printed ephemera, and other documents of Michael P. Smith (1937–2008) reveal his professional and personal interests and offer an extended gaze into the world of spiritual churches, Mardi Gras Indians, and traditional jazz funerals, as well as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which Smith photographed without interruption from 1970 to 2004. In the Spirit features essays by Jason Berry, Dan Cameron, John H. Lawrence, and Jude Solomon and includes a selection of nearly 100 of Smith’s photographs. The Historic New Orleans Collection is home to the photographer’s archive, which is available to the public at the Williams Research Center.
“Through Michael P. Smith’s eyes, an outdoor music festival became a shared religious experience, an ordinary place of worship a shadowy glimpse beyond the grave.”
Gambit
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In the Spirit: The Photography of Michael P. Smith from the Historic New Orleans Collection
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