Halloween is the most magical time of the year to be in New Orleans. By late October, the weather is finally feeling brisk, houses are decorated spectacularly with skeletons and cobwebs, and an enchanting mood sets over the city. Everything feels just a little more dreamlike.
For a few years, I spent my Halloweens visiting a group of friends in New Orleans in their magnificent Victorian-style home on St. Charles Avenue. The house was lavender-colored with huge ceilings, dazzling chandeliers, black wrought-iron lined balconies, and a ghost who, on occasion, left kisses on the downstairs hallway mirror. It was in this larger-than-life house that some of my favorite memories were made, dancing barefoot throughout the night in the hazy smoke of the fog machine to some of our favorite psychedelic songs.
The photos featured here offer a glance into these tumultuous evenings of Southern revelry. I created these photographs by employing a nearly automatic process, which lends itself well to some of the Surrealist imagery to come from it. These images are my memories, bottled and sitting on a shelf for whenever I wish to feel them again. Today I’d like to share them with you so that you too may experience the haunting beauty of those Halloween nights.
My best friend Rachel Guasp has also created an artful video compilation of one of these nights. It captures the mood beautifully.
You can find more of Rachel's video work on her Vimeo.
Lastly, is a playlist from one those spooky evenings below. I hope you enjoyed a peek into some of my favorite memories. I'm looking forward to making more this year, but this time in San Francisco.
Until next time!
–Brittany B.