from New Orleans magazine

(I'm not trying to violate copyright and post this entire article, but the longer article is worth a read; it references Jules Lion, Florestine Perrault Bertrand Collins, Arthur Bedou, and Marion J. Porter and references several exhibitions, including this summer an

exhibit on the Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans’ own order of black nuns, which will be on display at the New Orleans African American Museum in Tremé. Works by Arthur Bedou, the sisters’ photographer, will be included.

Developing Images
July 1, 2008 12:08 PM

BY: CAROLYN KOLB

Portraits of black New Orleans

From studio portraits to news events, the black artists who worked with cameras here captured all aspects of life and in the process left a legacy of both artistic output and personal determination. Their work is remarkable in many ways.

Steven Maklansky, director of curatorial services at the Louisiana State Museum, notes that, “among all the other cultural traditions that people of African descent had to assimilate was the desire to have one’s portrait made. The obsession with individual identity is an important port of the western visual arts tradition but that’s not necessarily the case on the African continent.” He continues, “An important part of African art is the mask – something that hides individual identity.”

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