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syndey byrd photography | biography | |
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Artist StatementIn the mid-1970's, I moved to New Orleans and dedicated myself to photographing the unique culture I found there. The Great leap forward in my work began in 1976, when I began ten years of study with photograph's great master of color – Ernst Haas. In formal and informal settings around the U.S., Haas evaluated my working methods, style and critical judgment while helping me shape the emerging body of my New Orleans imagery into an aesthetic and documentary whole. The culmination of this long, intensive apprenticeship came when Haas made visit to my studio and photographed New Orleans Carnival with me.For the past 30 years, my photography has recorded New Orleans Carnival, musical and spiritual traditions. I have witnessed every fact of New Orleans annual Mardi Gras Celebrations, including the customs and rituals of the black Mardi Gras Indians. Seeking the roots of and counterparts to New Orleans, spiritual celebration, I have examined Haitian Rituals on extended visits to the Caribbean. I have found other threads of this tradition in the animals/Christian ceremonies of New Orleans spiritualist churches. for many years, I have joined the horseback enactment of "Courrir Du Mardi Gras" in Southern Louisiana's Cajun country. i have followed New Orleans music from the hometown Jazz and Heritage Festival to European festivals, photographing major figures in performance and in their homes. In every case, I have been persistent in isolating the most telling scenes and practitioners of these traditions. BiographySyndey Byrd (July 3, 1944) – is an artist, ethnographer and journalist who, over the past thirty years, has devoted much of their life to documenting the culture and celebrations of Southern Louisiana in color photographs. Her work is distinguished by its scope of subject, graceful intimacy and seductive color. Nowhere are these characteristics more powerfully represented than in Byrd's images of the New Orleans region's remarkable Carnival season. Selected from thousands, Byrd's most extraordinary photographs will appear in an exhibit entitled "Carnival" set to open at the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, new Mexico in November 2004. The work, and others depicting Carnival celebrations around the world, will later travel to the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles, the American Museum of Natural History, New York, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art.Byrd's interest in the elaborate customs and indigenous music of the deep Southern U.S. and neighboring Caribbean region has produced authoritative catalogues of Haitian Art, architecture and ceremony; jazz funerals and other unique New Orleans traditions; the world renowned Jazz and Heritage Festival held annually in New Orleans and the boldest mannerisms of societies around the globe. Her tireless efforts, coupled with her winning images and personality, have given her lens access to both the very popular and private, the commonplace and flamboyant. As commercial clients and private collectors have long acknowledged, Syndey Byrd is a source when only a once-in-a-lifetime photo will do. Syndey Byrd was one of nine photographers chosen from 5,000 featured in the PBS television special funded by Kodak and based on Ten Thousand Eyes, a photo-documentary project of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. Recently, she won two New Orleans Press Club Awards: the Hal Ledet Memorial Award for Best Print Photography and Fist Place for Photo Story for her photos "Good Greif New Orleans Jazz Funerals" that appeared in Louisiana Cultural Vistas. Exhibitions and Collections"Carnival"A group exhibition of carnivals from around the world. Featuring 11 photographs of New Orleans Mardi Gras, including four mural sized.Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe - November 19th 2004 - August 28th, 2005. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles - November 19th 2005 - April30th, 2006. American Museum of Natural History, New York - June 2006 - August 2006. New Orleans Museum of Art - October 14th, 2006 - January 6th, 2007. Dallas Museum of Art - February 11th, 2007 - May 6th, 2007. New Orleans Museum of Art"Bon Temp Rouler: The Culture of Louisiana's Carnival"A solo exhibit of fifty color prints opened January 6th, 1992. Prior to the show, the works toured as a component of the Visual Media Arts Program for 1990 and 1991, funded by the Southern Arts Federation. Mardi Gras Museum, Kenner, LA"Louisiana's Mardi Gras"A solo exhibit of over 250 Photographs. In permanent collection since 1992. Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans"Big Chief Norman Bell of the Wild Tchoupitoulas"A 6.9 foot enlargement for ongoing Carnival exhibit, in permanent collection since 1983. Contemporary Arts Center, New OrleansArt for Art's SakeGroup show featuring "Guede Voodoo Ceremony in Haiti"; Kathleen: Nude; October 1983. Louisiana Images IV Juried Exhibit featuring two portraits of Nahua Indian children; Hari Krishna children in Vancouver. World's Fair, New OrleansWomen's PavilionOne of sixty artists chosen from a national competition of over 5,000 entries; One of three photographers in exhibit, 1984. Louisiana State Pavilion Multi-media exhibit produced by Metaforms, Inc. of New York; Approximately 100 color images screened throughout the exposition; One photo displayed at entrance to Pavilion, 1984. Amoco Oil CompanyNew Orleans PortfolioOne women exhibit of thirty-three photographs, purchased for permanent collection, 1978. United States Information AgencyIn performance U.S.A., group exhibition to travel through the Caribbean for three years starting in 1985; 4 images.New Orleans JazzPermanent collection of sixty-five photographs, 1996.The South By Its PhotographersInvitational Juried ExhibitA traveling exhibit featuring forty-eight leading photographers from the south. Louisiana State Museum Birmingham Alabama Museum of Art Columbia Museum of Art. Syndey Byrd Photography 504.821.3528 2730 Ursuline New Orleans, LA 70119 |
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Syndey Byrd Photography | 318.332.2620 | 4643 Highway 3278 | Natchitoches, LA 71457 | all work © Syndey Byrd | |
