Jonathan Traviesa

Photographer Jonathan Traviesa documents the social realities of New Orleans in a range of projects that include an epic portrait series of the city’s residents, reportage during Hurricane Katrina, and conceptually based photo-installations emerging out of his experiences during the storm. In his most celebrated and comprehensive body of work, Portraits: Photographs in New Orleans 1998–2009, Traviesa has created a collective picture of New Orleans through a series of portraits taken outside individual’s homes throughout the city. The portfolio, which includes one hundred portraits and one self-portrait, was published by UNO Press in 2009 to coincide with one-person exhibitions at Ogden Museum of Southern Art and The Front, both in New Orleans. The following year, the New Orleans Photo Alliance awarded Traviesa the inaugural Michael P. Smith Documentary Photography Grant.