Biele - long ago and far away

[c]2007 doug duffey

PLEASE CHECK OUT MY ARTWORK AT MY ART WEBSITE:

https://doug-duffey.pixels.com/

Many many thanks

[c]2017 doug duffey

PHOTO POST HALLOWEEN 2013- OF EARLIER HALLOWEENS

[c]2013 Doug Duffey

[c]2013 DOUG DUFFEY

drive by shootings with phone- mlu

drive by shootings with cell phone- 4.28.12.- mlu: 

 killin' time in my ride- runnin' the streets- home, funky sweet home. strange monuments, strange altars, ignored or forgotten. unasked for sacrifices. angels, ghosts and haints long gone. spirits leaving spaces empty and lost. memories crumbling before my eyes. 

scars and wounds on dead, dried, crusty corpses. brick and rust, wood and rot. go down, old hannah.the gallant, tragically beautiful, and elegantly downtrodden south; louisiana, the fertile delta: the mother, the womb, the birthplace of all soul...

[doug duffey 4.30.2012]

all images by doug duffey april 28, 2012- shot w/samsung android galaxy s cell phone w/ pogo  & retro camera + app  [c]2012 doug duffey

DOUG DUFFEY/LOUISIANA AMERICANA

POSTER OF/FOR MY SHOW AT THE RAYVILLE ARTS CENTER

DOUG DUFFEY/LOUISIANA AMERICANA

With this year marking the 200th anniversary of Louisiana becoming a state, I thought, for this show, exhibiting various images I had captured from around the state was in order.

I have been photographing my home, Louisiana, for almost half a century. I have many photos from all over the state; but have chosen to focus primarily on the Northeast Louisiana region and New Orleans, where I lived for many years. There are also a few shots from other regions in the state, as well as a few from Natchez and Vicksburg, which fit into the ‘Americana’ category. 

When selecting photos for this exhibit, I was also thinking of all the photographers of the FSA, during 1935–44 who went across America photographing the horrors of the great depression- especially in the destitute rural deep south [which, in some places, has NOT changed all that much] and how those images have stuck in my head forever; influencing my own work. I have, for as long as I can remember, been attracted to, if not obsessed with photographing deserted home places, shotgun houses, hand painted signs, folk art type things; rusted and falling down barns and abandoned buildings, junk stores, etc. Old wood, brick and rust excite me, when I see it; and I feel I have to capture it before it vanishes. In Louisiana rust, abandonment and decay are everywhere... but not forever

I find beauty in the funkiness and eccentricity here; which is often overlooked. It is a major part of what I love to capture as a photographer: the beautiful, and the not so beautiful, the humorous, quirky, eccentric and the sad. I’ve always found Louisiana to be tragically beautiful; beautiful with an underlying sadness, mystery and magic about it; overflowing with majesty and soul, apparent in a lot of everyday things that we might overlook, not notice, or scarcely notice; things that we have become too accustomed to, which surround us; that we would see nowhere else… remnants of ages that are perishing, fading, quickly disappearing... either by man made or natural disasters.

General Electric used to say, “Progress is our most important product,” It isn’t. When I see the devastation, annihilation, pollution and desecration: like forests being razed to put in a strip mall or a gated community, small towns abandoned and left to ruin; in some cases whole ‘city’ blocks leveled- it angers me. I try to capture the images of things I KNOW will not be here much longer; which, I think, at times, IS my 'raison d'être... to preserve the memory of what I can, while I can, for future generations though my photographs.

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Doug Duffey was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1950. He was inducted into the Louisiana hall of Fame in 2001- and the National Blues Hall of Fame in 2009. Best known as a singer, songwriter, musician, performer, he is also a serious multi genre visual artist; mediums being collage, drawing, painting, photography and mixed media. He began his musical career, performing professionally, at the age of 14 and has become an international entertainer and recording artist, releasing 7 CDs of original material. He has promoted Louisiana music and culture in Europe and beyond for the past 20 years; performing in international festivals, music clubs, and has performed 2 different times for the American Embassy/Ambassador in Moscow, Russia. As with his music, he began creating art at a very early age. He has drawn and painted since childhood; began making collage in the 1960s; taught himself photography: from camera basics to how to develop film and make prints. Preferring film [and vintage cameras] to digital, he often utilizes both in his work. His artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Louisiana [New Orleans, Shreveport, Monroe, Bastrop] and Europe. He is a member of the 10/20/40 Art Group. He has resided and worked between Louisiana and Switzerland for the past 20 years. 

[c]2012 DOUG DUFFEY

DECEMBER 8 2011- SWITZERLAND IN SEPIA

UNEDITED BLURS, REFLECTIONS, DRIVE BY SHOOTINGS, ETC. OF BIEL, LA NEUVEVILLE, LE LANDERON, ERLACH ETC. DECEMBER 8 2011- ALL FOTOS: [C] 2011 DOUG DUFFEY- SWITZERLAND

[c]2011 doug duffey