Celebrate 30 years of the OA.

With original work from Imani Perry, Kristen Arnett, Diane Roberts, and so many others, our Spring Issue honors our past and looks into our expansive future.

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Something Inherited

Artist: Lucius A. Fontenot

Project: Mémoire de la Boue

Description: Lucius A. Fontenot’s Mémoire de la Boue, which translates roughly to “memory of mud,” is a photographic investigation of the culture and traditions of Louisiana via depictions of the Courir de Mardi Gras and the boucherie. In his hyper-detailed images of the participants, rituals, and landscapes of Mardi Gras, Fontenot interrogates the idea of ancestral or inherited memory: the notion “that some traditions are so much a part of who we are they seem to not have been learned but inherited.” By stripping the color from the usually vibrant depictions of Mardi Gras festivities, Fontenot hopes to skew the viewer’s relationship with both glamour and time, collapsing the distance between past and present to deliver us into a “primal place” where we are led by “emotion, wonder, and desire.”


Eyes on the South is curated by Jeff Rich. The weekly series features selections of current work from Southern artists, or artists whose photography concerns the South. To submit your work to the series, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..





Lucius A. Fontenot

Lucius A. Fontenot is a native of South Louisiana. His work focuses on the people, cultures, traditions, food ways, and geography of Louisiana.