Loyola University to Host Panel Discussion With Photographers Featured in Harold Baquet Exhibit

NEW ORLEANS – Three prominent, local Black photographers will discuss their work and that of the late Harold Baquet during a panel discussion March 19 at Loyola University.

Edward Buckles, Ashley Lorraine and Girard Mouton III will participate in the discussion, which begins at 4:55 p.m. in Nunemaker Auditorium, in the Monroe Science Complex at Loyola. L. Kasimu Harris, a New Orleans-based photographer and writer, will moderate the panel.

Harris curated a photo exhibit featuring Buckles, Lorraine, Mouton and others called “A Tribute to Harold Baquet: Picturing Blackness,” a meditation on Black imagery and culture from the noted New Orleans photographer. The exhibition is on display now through April 1 in the Diboll Design Center, on the fourth floor of the Monroe Library at Loyola.

A seventh-generation New Orleanian of Creole descent, Baquet spent 30 years photographing New Orleans and its people, specifically Black political and daily life. He worked at New Orleans City Hall as a photographer during the mayoral administrations of Dutch Morial and Sidney Barthelemy, and later spent 25 years as the photographer at Loyola.

Buckles, Lorraine and Mouton are three of the 10 photographers from the Black and Brown communities in New Orleans participating in the exhibition. Harris had asked the photographers to provide photos in the same spirit as Baquet’s to serve as a response to his work.

The other photographers sharing space with Baquet are Jamal Barnes, Delaney George, Camille Farrah Lenain, Akasha Rabut, Tod Smith, Trenity Thomas and Eric Waters. The exhibition includes 55 images in total.

Harris said Baquet’s portrayals of Black culture not only showcased his brilliant artistry but his connection to communities, from celebrities to dignitaries to everyday people. Harris, also an adjunct faculty member at Loyola, said he chose the photographers whose work hangs alongside Baquet’s, in an effort to “dig deeper” and show different perspectives of New Orleans that push visual boundaries.

The exhibition, which opened in October, is free and open to the public. The Diboll Design Center is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information, visit https://www.dibolldesigncenter.com/event/a-tribute-to-harold-baquet-panel-discussion.