The Danse Macabre: Celebration and Survival in New Orleans
Cheryl Gerber is a freelance journalist and documentary photographer working in New Orleans, where she was born. She began her journalism career as a reporter but switched to photography after spending a year working in Honduras. In 1992, she began working for Michael P. Smith, who nurtured her desire to document daily life in New Orleans. She has been a regular contributor to The New York Times, the Associated Press, New Orleans Magazine, and has been a staff photographer for Gambit Weekly since 1994. During the past two decades, Cheryl has won several awards from the New Orleans Press Club for her work on social issues and news photography.
New Orleans is a city of contradictions: comic and tragic, sacred and secular, profound and profane; steeped heavily in tradition and religion yet drenched in decadence and debauchery. The Danse Macabre reveals the city’s rebellious and humorous spirit, which celebrates life in the face of disaster and death.
In this street-level tableau of New Orleans culture, photographer Cheryl Gerber portrays the city’s rich and famous while paying homage to the everyday people who make life so special in her hometown. Colorful shots of Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, second lines, and other iconic arrays of New Orleans culture are juxtaposed with images of the homelessness, crime, and racism that are equally central to life in the Crescent City. Within these pages we find Southern Decadence revelers clashing with religious protesters, Catholic traditions merging with Voodoo, and New Orleanians from all walks of life expressing themselves through satire and parody. In short, we witness the city not only as a backdrop to cataclysmic confrontations, but also as a force that rouses them.
The Danse Macabre: Celebration and Survival in New Orleans
The Danse Macabre (lsupress.org)
NEW ORLEANS: Life and Death in the Big Easy
https://www.octaviabooks.com/event/cheryl-gerber-life-and-death-big-easy
Cherchez la Femme: New Orleans Women
https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/C/Cherchez-la-Femme
Members of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid and Pleasure Club dance during their annual second line, 2012. The club was formed in 1993 after the death of traditional jazz musician and mentor Danny Barker, who had introduced many young African American musicians to brass band music and the practice of playing a jazz funeral through the Fairview Baptist Church. The members of BMOL pay homage to musicians, community activists and many other working men.
Grammy award-winning musicians Troy “Trombone Shorty’’ Andrews and Jon Batiste perform together at the New Orleans Jazz Museum Gala, 2018. The beloved native sons met each other at jazz camp when they were just eleven and twelve years old are now world renowned.
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