Michael P. Smith photo of Earl King & Stevie Ray Vaughan
taken at the 1986 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
“The camera is an extension of my knowledge of the inner workings of the community that I have come to understand over a twenty-five year period. It’s my art, my subjective view of the world I’m experiencing.” — Michael P. Smith, 1993
For those of us who love New Orleans, its music and culture, probably have seen some of Michael P. Smith’s photographs. A New Orleans native, Smith’s photographs are in the permanent collections of the Bibliotheque National in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and, locally, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Louisiana State Museum.
It is now almost three months since Michael P. Smith passed away. Yet, in my Internet circles, I’m just now learning of his death. Even before his retirement in 2004, time had already chronicled the importance Smith has played in documenting the music, culture and communities of this great city.
On a warm Saturday afternoon in October, hundreds gathered to celebrate the life of Michael P. Smith. This photo was taken by Michael Luke, October 11, 2008
kenne
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