I was able to wander around New Orleans for a while today. While exploring, I snapped a ridiculous number of photos of the town, the music, the sights, and the people. This picture -- quite possibly my favorite of all the photos I've taken in this project thus far -- sticks out as the quintessential picture of New Orleans and the South.The location is the Cafe du Monde, located next to the Mississippi River and across from Jackson Square. Cafe du Monde is a landmark in New Orleans. It has two specialties -- coffee with chickory and beignets (basically a funnel cake with powdered sugar served in donut sized portions) -- and essentially serves only these two items. They do serve a few varieties on these two staples, and their cafe au lait -- a drink that is half coffee, half milk -- draws people in from miles around. The original Cafe du Monde opened in 1862, and is open to provide caffeine and fried sugary goodness fixes to anyone who may want it 24-hours a day (closing only for Christmas and "the occasional hurricane passes too close to New Orleans".)
The gentleman here is an employee of Cafe du Monde. I'm not sure if he was taking a break or on-duty (there were random employees just sitting outside who looked like they were positioned there). But something about him being in the shadowed part of the picture, smoking a cigarette, while the tourists are in the bright part of the picture, and the clear line between shadow and light takes me to what I think 1950s New Orleans would have be like. Fortunately, I didn't see a lot of that happening today, but that doesn't mean it's not there as this picture, taken in 2009, clearly illustrates.
I can't really say what else it is about this picture that I love so much, but I'm sure that you can find your own. Hopefully I'll be able to capture some other quality pictures like this as the project continues along.
