The road has always given me the answers I’ve sought. One of the eternal questions for an artist is what’s next? Where should I go, where should I turn the camera, should this be in black and white or color, what am I even trying to say. The questions can become so overwhelming that I have to remember there is always the same answer: just go.
Saint Joseph Abbey Cemetery, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana (Polaroid SX-70) (all photos 2020)
One method that has always worked is to center a trip around a particular artist, and see what there is when you arrive. This way often brings me to unexpected places and reveals new and unplanned experiences. Even if the light is bad, or I’m not necessarily making good art, there’s always just the thrill of being in a new place, or of making mental notes of what might look better in the winter, or in the full summer sun. I also feel like it deepens my connections with the chosen artist, or creates a new relationship with them.
Madisonville, La. (Polaroid SX-70)
While I had often visited his family’s ornate gravesite in Greenville, and had driven past one of his homes in New Orleans, I had never traveled to the resting place of the author Walker Percy. A colleague suggested a historic hotel down in Covington (on the luxury end of the spectrum) so I headed out in search.
Saint Joseph Abbey Cemetery (Polaroid 600)1
A great and related joy in traveling to a new place is listening to local radio, if there is any, or compiling a playlist of music from the region. In this part of Louisiana you can mostly get a signal from the great WWOZ out of New Orleans. The music they play makes you feel like there is so much mystery left in the world—like time traveling back to when you couldn’t carry all the world’s music in your pocket, when the radio thrilled and surprised and taught you, and in turn you were beholden to its whims.
Baan Thai , Covington, La. (Polaroid 600)
By the time I got settled on a Friday night and went out, WWOZ was replaying an old Ernie K-Doe broadcast. I was excited to hear a voice on the radio that had been twenty years gone, just like it was still happening. The legendary singer and dj wasn’t spinning music from New Orleans though, but his favorites on the Stax label from Memphis. It felt glorious to ride beneath canopies of live oaks draped with Spanish moss while the voice of Otis Redding faded in and out in the night.
Abita Springs, La. (Polaroid SX-70) (This is what I was making a photo of while listening to WWOZ; the sign rotated and I had to wait through a several minute cycle until it got back to deer corn)
Madisonville, La. (Polaroid SX-70)
Roy’s Knife & Archery Shop, Covington, La. (Polaroid 600) (Thank you Roy for letting me take this picture and for putting a good edge on my pocket knife for just five bucks)
Covington, La. (Polaroid SX-70) (Neon at night just looks so beautiful on this film)
Covington, La. (Polaroid 600) (I am ALL FOR people making more Muppet horror balloon sculptures to announce their grand openings)
Retro Music Store, Covington, La. (Polaroid 600) (A very good record store with solid prices and a good chunk of local, metal, and r&b. I thought the Stax sign was a great signifier since I had been listening to a lot the night before and also had the “Stax snap” sticker on my camera)
I RECKON THE POINT IS that I didn’t go looking for all these wonderful things, but I followed the road and found them. As you can probably guess the Polaroid of Walker’s grave was more or less a bust , but it worked to get me on the road with my eyes open. Maybe this method would work for you, too.
YOU KNOW ERNIE K-DOE from his massive party song “Mother-in-Law,” but he also sang one of the greatest jams of all time— “Here Come the Girls,” written by the maestro Allan Toussaint.
THANK-YOU for listening, and as always I remain gorjusjxn on Instagram (still on a break but lots of Polaroids there) and you can see more of my photography at McCartyPolaroids. Drop me a line if you’ve got a suggestion where I should head to next or what artist I should seek next—it’s Spring and I just ordered a ton of film.
This photograph reminds me of the time I submitted a series of what I felt was my best work to a photo publication. In rejecting it the editor was generally kind, but told me it was all “too Americana.”
First of all, IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE BAD, and second of all—as this Polaroid proves—I CAN DO GOTHIC, TOO.