For six months in 1974, Charles H. Traub and Douglas Baz lived in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, and photographed there and in the surrounding countryside. Their collective work encompasses many hundreds of images that depict the land, people, and life patterns of Louisiana’s Cajuns. This document is perhaps the most complete survey of a remarkable enclave of what was then a relatively intact culture that was yet to be popularize by mass media.
It’s hard to tell who photographed what. Our styles melded together. It was a shared undertaking. There was no real plan—just the desire to see, experience, talk, engage, and photograph. We were outsiders to be sure, and the view is always that—of the curious onlooker. You can only know what you know and only photograph what you find intriguing. We tried to do just that: capture the land, the people, and the culture—all that seemed so curiously at odds with big city life, and even our own aspirations to the world of galleries, museums, and fancy publications.
Charles H. Traub from The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly
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