A color photo book presenting the photography of Christopher Porche West of Black Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans.


The themes and subjects of his photography similarly progressed during this period, leading him to venture abroad. From 1998 to 2000 Porché West thrice traveled to Haiti as part of a humanitarian aid mission sponsored by the New Orleans-based American Haitian Development Association, where he found further expressions of Franco-Creole culture while photographing the lives and customs of everyday Haitians. A strong interest in Carnival traditions led him to visit Cuba in 2003 where he documented their Afro-Latino customs and culture. Two years later he found himself in Liberia, photographing people and places that could have just as easily hailed from communities in Cuba, Haiti, or the bayous of Louisiana.

Porché West has been featured in over 40 exhibitions. Most notably, in the summer of 2003 he was singularly selected to commemorate the Louisiana Bicentennial in Paris, the heart of Francophone art and culture, where he exhibited at the Festival L’esprit Jazz à Saint Germain des Prés. Collections of his work can be found in the archives of the Historic New Orleans Collection, the New Orleans Museum of Art, Harvard University, the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University and the University of California at San Diego, as well as in numerous private holdings.

Porché West currently lives and works in one of New Orleans’ oldest neighborhoods, Bywater, founded in 1809, where he continues to document and preserve the culture and life of New Orleans and its people.