Our 23 days in New Orleans were a wild ride. At Wonderland, there was a rotating cast of characters: other residents and employees of Miss Stacy, guests who rented out the main house, and attendees of the various parties that were thrown at her establishment during our time as the shed people. We had a few visitors from home and met people during our stay. People played an important role in making New Orleans the incredible experience that it was.
We attended a wedding reception for a Kentucky liquor salesman. We wore costumes for a circus party with live performances and music. everyone decked out in their fairytale finery. We witnessed a live performance at a village where every building was a handmade musical instrument, each operated by a different musician with a full brass band walking amongst us. We peeled crawfish by the truckload and spent most evenings drinking alcoholic beverages on the porch, waving at all the people that walked by.
I went to a rap show at the House of Blues, met someone out front who noticed my camera, and was granted all access to photograph him and his friends as they opened for Juicy J. They were all just grinding trying to blow up, and I was witness to their attempts to live the hip hop lifestyle in New Orleans. You hustle, you put yourself out there, and just keep working until you achieve your dreams. While the audience was mostly white college kids, that didn't bother any of them, or Juicy for that matter. The Juiceman even got a kick out of it, as he was taking requests from the crowd he chuckled when "I ask the white girl what she wanna hear she say 'smoke a ni**a'".
There are so many people we met and so many things we did that I didn't adequately photograph. That has been a major struggle for me on this trip, finding the balance between experience and documentation. Portraits, something that I pride myself upon, have been especially hard to execute up to my standards. This trip has been a big learning experience for me, and in some ways it has been preliminary. These photos represent a sliver of what I've seen, but I've built a base of knowledge for the future. Onwards, ever onwards.
- Anthony Mayes -