Until the Water
May 1–8, 2016

  • Vadia by Frank Relle

    Vadia by Frank Relle

  • Brainard by Frank Relle

    Brainard by Frank Relle

  • Telemachus by Frank Relle

    Telemachus by Frank Relle

  • Sorrel by Frank Relle

    Sorrel by Frank Relle

  • Cypremort by Frank Relle

    Cypremort by Frank Relle

  • Josephine by Frank Relle

    Josephine by Frank Relle

  • Leona by Frank Relle

    Leona by Frank Relle

  • Clouet by Frank Relle

    Clouet by Frank Relle

  • Seelos by Frank Relle

    Seelos by Frank Relle

  • Mestayer by Frank Relle

    Mestayer by Frank Relle

The city was built to harness the water’s resources. Not beside the water, but into it: an impossible aspiration. We built houses of wood and bricks, and forts that were obsolete before they could serve their purpose. We built bridges to carry cotton and sugar over land tilled by men and machines. We were rewarded with great wealth. When history and water took it from us, we made laws and levees to keep them compliant – another impossible aspiration. These forces rose again, and we moved down paths into darkened churches. Conversations swirled in empty lots. We were made to learn that the water was not ours to direct.

My work examines our emotional, cultural, and historical attachment to a land that was developed with only short-term human goals in mind. It’s a radical ecological meditation on a city created in the space between abundance and annihilation

Sponsored by

So Wa Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Artists

Frank Relle
Frank Relle frankrelle.com

Frank Relle is a photographer born and based in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Tulane University with degrees in Cognitive Science and Philosophy. His work is included in the public collections of the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and in the private collections of Wynton Marsalis, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Brees, Sheryl Crow and Kayne West.

His photographs have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Southern Review and The Oxford American magazines.

Frank is the recipient of numerous awards including a 2007 International Photography Award and the Photo Lucida Critical Mass top 50 photographers 2006 and 2011.

He was the curator of the New Orleans to Moscow Cultural Exchange Exhibition at the Multimedia Museum.