Chandra McCormick, The Prayer, Phoenix, LA River Parish, 1986, Archival pigment print, Gift of Stacey and Michael Burke

Photographer Chandra McCormick was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1957 and has been documenting the state and its people for more than 25 years with her husband, Keith Calhoun. Together, they have visually recorded a wide array of events throughout the state, including New Orleans’ vibrant music culture as well as other elements of the state’s social and cultural history.

The husband and wife team has also ventured into rural Louisiana to document religious and spiritual ceremonies, like the one pictured above in McCormick’s photograph titled, The Prayer, Pheonix, LA River Parish. This work is one of the Ogden Museum’s most recent photography acquisitions and was added to the Museum’s permanent collection in 2019.

Through several photographic series, Calhoun and McCormick have chronicled traditions rooted in Louisiana culture – often preserving a vanishing way of life through the visual arts. Their series include: Louisiana Laborers, The Dock Worker, Longshoreman, Freight Handlers, Sugar Cane Field Scrappers and Sweet Potato Workers.

You can see McCormick’s The Prayer, Phoenix, LA River Parish and more of the Ogden Museum’s recent photography acquisitions in the upcoming exhibition Revelations: Recent Photography Acquisitions, opening March 14. This exhibition celebrates regional identity in parallel with the South’s ongoing contributions to a global conversations on photography and the visual arts.