(BTC) The Ghosts of Carnival

BTC Stands for "Behind the Curtain". Its a look at work created by various artists, photographers and creators around the world. 

Its a small peak behind the curtain as to how the piece was created and the conceptual ideas behind it. 

All art comes with a story. 

In the early 2000's, I was working for a boutique hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Across the street from the hotel was the Ursuline Convent. To one side of the convent was a gated parking lot where the hotel rented space to keep the cars of its guests. No one was allowed in this area except those that worked for the hotel. 

At the time I worked third shift and there was no doorman. So if someone needed a car or needed one parked it fell to me to take the car over myself. Since the hotel only had 15 or so rooms, this was never a problem. 

Now the Ursuline Convent is a strange place. Its considered to be one of the most haunted places in New Orleans. The property is nearly 300 years old and has housed several versions of the Convent as it grew. It survived two fire, one in 1788 and another in 1794. Its housed the sick and dying on more than one occasion. 

One night I decided to bring my camera to work with me and in the wee hours of the morning I took a walk over and snapped a few assorted photos of the eerie hedge garden and sculptures of dead nuns which adorned the private area adjacent the parking lot. 

Now while the image above is a flight of my imagination, there is some truth to the vision. I actually did see a masked figure walking on the other side of the hedges who entered the archway and disappeared. If it had been Mardi Gras season, I probably would have taken it lightly. But the simple fact is that no one lives in the convent now. Its a museum which is closed and locked at night. And...it wasn't Mardi Gras. It was late August. 

And here is the other oddity of that night. There was a small stone bench that sat near some of the statues and on that bench were 5 brand new books about the history of Carnival in New Orleans. I'd swear the books weren't there when I passed the bench the first time. But their they were, all alone in the darkest hour of the night. 

So what you see above is my vision of that masked figure, and the haunting reminiscence of flames which have touched this place before. It would not be the last time I saw ghosts in New Orleans, but it was definitely one of the oddest.

Here you see the original photo taken of the Convent that night. I was not using a very sophisticated camera at the time and the quality level was not what I would have wished. But you can make art of any image which you see a story within. It took quite a bit of work to bring the Convent out in the photo but the camera often sees things that the human eye does not. It was there in the darkness. Just took time to bring it out. 

This work will be part of the Spirits of the Dead series. 

As a side note, the masked fellow in the distance was actually a body painting model who I worked with a few months back. The unedited photo below shows the original that he was taken from. This photo was specifically chosen because of the way he is leaning against the wall.