And then she asked, “But are you happy, baby?”
The doors of St Mary’s
Vieux Carré
New Orleans, LA
2015
Automotives. When we talk at all, we talk about cars. Mostly, it’s the 1950s and 1960s models, out of Detroit. The ones that were there for us when we were young. Proof that we were there at that time, having our formative car dreams. Maybe proof that we were young.
Just the Americans. We never talk about Porsche, Mercedes, Triumph, Fiat, and the rest. No exotics.
We discuss lines, the color combinations, how they sound. Their shape, trim. How they look from the front, the side, and going away. How they look when they move. How they might feel, the ones we have never ridden. How they smelled when they were new, or used. Leather. Cigars. Dream cars: Buick, Lincoln, Cadillac.
We talk about these cars as if we are talking about women we do not know—women we have only seen, or heard about, or imagined, admired, but never met. Women we have dreamed about, maybe. We find common ground. That’s how it is when we talk.
Angelo, on the corner Governor Nicholls
New Orleans
Christmas Eve
2016
Bike Dreams No. 777: Elijah and Will, custom bicycle builders
Elijah and Will
Faubourg Tremé
New Orleans
2019
from The Labor Suite: How We Work
Ran into a longtime pal this morning as he was heading home from work. We caught up, and I was glad to hear he hasn’t been sick, and he’s able to work on the regular. He told me again how he misses seeing Jack in the morning. They knew each other fairly well, Jack and Charles, giving and getting pets and sniffs every morning for about 15 years as Charles made his way through the early morning to open the restaurant. Charles is a dedicated and hard working man. He also has a fantastic sense of humor!
As we spoke, I realized that we had never made a picture. This is that. A Sunday morning, as the rain started, in front of my house. My first portrait of 2022, so I guess I’m still doing these pictures.
Charles, with umbrella
Vieux Carré
New Orleans
January 2, 2022
from The Labor Suite: How We Work
Chester, on the way to catch his bus to go visit his mother in the hospital, praying for me.
Chester, matching tartan shirt and tignon
Barracks Street
New Orleans
2016
Clover Grill
Bourbon Street
French Quarter
New Orleans
2016
Humidity. Wet pavement, petrichor, with the close smell of muddy leaves on the neutral ground—bird sounds echo (echo) on the wire and in from those giant oaks and jasmine. The sun is trying to come up. Nobody is talking. Gone now, but I just heard wild laughter from around the corner. Derrick makes his way around the corner, out of the night, on his way home. It could be 1968. It could be Paris. It could be Ohio. But it’s just New Orleans, here, now.
Derrick, on his way home
Faubourg Marigny
New Orleans
2017
Doc, retired riverboat captain, daybreak, spraying down the decks at his Barracks Street house
Captain Clarke Campbell ‘Doc’ Hawley (RIP)
Barracks Street
French Quarter
New Orleans
2017
Elton, street performer
French Quarter
New Orleans
2017
from The Labor Suite: How We Work
Friday night feels
BLATZ
J&J’s Sports Lounge
Bywater
New Orleans
2020
Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue perform at 45 Tchoup
Irish Channel
New Orleans
March 4, 2018
Just lurking
Homicide
Mississippi River
Toulouse Street Wharf
French Quarter
New Orleans
2016
Johnny’s Po’ Boys
Sunday morning
Frech Quarter
New Orleans
2016
Julep, mistress Beverly
Garden District
New Orleans
2019
from an ongoing series, Women of A Certain Age
“Women hold up half the sky” -Mao Zedong
Maafa Commemoration Procession
Governor Nicholls Street
Vieux Carré
New Orleans
2017
Monuments, marching in
St. Louis Cemetery No. 3
New Orleans
2019
“Oh, this is a side hustle, not my main thing. My husband is working on the house, so I just came out to get a truckload to recycle. I’m not surprised you want a picture of my truck, it’s the only one like it, and it’s all mine”
We made a few pictures. Then, in one easy motion, with the fluid agility of a swimmer getting out of a pool, Mary pulled herself up and over the steel wall of the dumpster, landing in the stacks of scrap metal. She tossed out the valuables and loaded her truck.
As we chatted, I noticed her accent, and asked if she might be from Jamaica. “Oh no, baby. it’s Africa, Ghana. I’m the real ting, you know?” That’s how it was. True facts. I may show you the truck later, maybe not.
Mary, steel recycling
Touro
New Orleans
April 20, 2021
from The Labor Suite: How We Work
Wherein, at the river’s edge, Mr. Warren Hatcher prescribes policy and a procedural framework for me (or any right minded person with a will and a way who ain’t all splattered in evil) to get right with God—while discussing headlines from the morning Times-Picayune, including sports, entertainment, and business.
Warren Hatcher testifies, Chapter and Verse
Sunrise upon the levee
Vieux Carré
New Orleans
2017
from Mississippi River Lullabies
—–
Mystic Krewe of Druids Membership limited to 200. The krewe is ruled by The Archdruid whose identity is never revealed
Druids
Carnival Season
St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans
2013
He was so cool that sometimes, at night, when he rode the Malecón, rain might become snow, lovers might whisper, and the waves waited patiently for him to pass by
Nicholas: The Bicyclist
Florida
April 12, 2021
from the Contemporary Explorers series
Ash Wednesday morning, waiting to punch in
Opening crew
Court of Two Sisters
New Orleans
2017
from The Labor Suite: How We Work
Inside the office, at home, or out on the street, everybody’s runnin’ some kind of a hustle. What’s your hustle? Pikachu’s hustle Night Art Market Faubourg Marigny New Orleans 2015
Do they teach Little Jack Horner anymore? Is Harold and the Purple Crayon still around? Do these pants make me look younger? Be honest.
Purples
Julia at Pêche
New Orleans
2018
Taking a break from the action on a Dumaine Street stoop
Red and Blonde
Down at the Mardi Gras
New Orleans
2012
Backatown, northern end of of Black Storyville. This part of town is where young Louis Armstrong was famously arrested for firing a .38 into the air at the corner of South Rampart and Perdido—just a half block from the Karnofsky building—to celebrate the new year on Dec. 31, 1912. That would see him sent to the Colored Waif’s Home, where he would for the first time get formal music instruction. The rest is music history.
Rounding the corner
Eagle Saloon
New Orleans
2020
—–
Sean, night cook
Belle’s Diner
New Orleans
2015
from The Labor Suite: How We Work
—–
Anybody can kick down the house, tear it up. But it takes someone with skill and ambition to build something, to make it whole. I like the builders. Shorty is one of those, and he does it with one arm: skill, ambition.
Mr. Shorty, carpenter
Vieux Carré
New Orleans
from The Labor Suite: How We Work
On the way to the Fair Grounds, and the horse track
Splish Splash Washateria
Bayou Saint John
New Orleans
2021
Flags in the dark
St. Ann Street
Vieux Carré
New Orleans
March 14, 2019
Steamer Natchez
Toulouse Street Wharf
Mississippi River
New Orleans
2017
Tết Nguyên Đán 2018
Sisters
Versailles
New Orleans
2018
Walking the dog on the wharf
Bywater
New Orleans
March 11, 2020
White’s Mercantile
Magazine Street
Irish Channel
New Orleans
2020
Virtually every morning I encounter these women on their way to work at Café du Monde, and I try to grab a shot of them at least annually. This picture was a morning in 2016. Always walking (and posing) in the same way, in the same order, they make my day brighter when I see them and we exchange greetings. It is a superficial exchange, but it feels civilized. They have been in this country since just after Saigon fell. They are my friends. They are part of an ongoing series, Women of A Certain Age
Women friends
Café du Monde
New Orleans
2016
On her way to work, we stopped to chat and make a few pictures. We do this ritual every time I see her…every couple of years. from Women of A Certain Age
Zarina, chef
Cabildo Alley
New Orleans
2016
Black and white morning music on Rue Chartres
Zebra People, trombone
Down at the Mardi Gras
French Quarter
New Orleans 2010
BIO:
I enjoy searching for the light, both figuratively and literally. Since I shoot a lot of photographs in the early morning, I am more of a rod guy, than a cone guy. I don’t dislike color, but I tend to favor monochromatic imagery. I enjoy meeting and making pictures of people in their normal, usual place, where they spend regular time, unposed: naturalistic environmental portraits. In this collection of pictures I have shared a sampling of the ongoing work I have done in New Orleans. Most of them were shot on the streets of the French Quarter and on the east bank levee, beside the Mississippi River, over the course of 15 years, between 5 and 7 am—people working, or on their way to or from their work: The Labor Suite. I am also involved in an ongoing project which involves portraits of mature women in the second act of their lives, mainly in their homes: Women of a Certain Age. I have included a few of those here as well.
Born and raised in Springfield, Ohio, I have lived in an assortment of American cities, though I have spent my life primarily in New Orleans, New York City, and Southern California. Currently I divide my time between New Orleans, and a river camp on the St. Johns River in northeastern Florida.
So glad to see my friend Chris’ work receiving a national spotlight in your publication. I’ve been following him on Facebook and instagram since he left New York. We lived in the east village in the same building. His introspective eyes are getting the attention they deserve.
What a fantastic collection of Bryson’s work. A force of nature he is.
Beautiful:)