One of my favorite things to be able to do as a photographer is to use my camera as a tool to engage my curiosity with the world. This weekend I was able to go out and explore new areas of the wetlands of Louisiana. So naturally I’m thinking about the history of those before me here who have done similar things with their own cameras and curiosity for the natural world.
Fonville Winans was born in Mexico, Missouri, in 1911 and raised near Fort Worth, Texas. His father, a civil engineer, traveled often for his job and would bring young Fonville along on some of these occasions. When his father was given a project in Morgan City, Fonville accompanied him, bringing along his camera. He says of his first views of the swamps and bayous of south Louisiana:
It was absolutely fascinating to me. It was like being in the darkest Africa…I tell you, it really grabbed a hold of me. To me, it was pure adventure.”
Winans, whose work was never truly recognized for its cultural import until after his death, became known for his work documenting the trade and industry of Louisiana. He photographed shrimpers and oystermen, salt miners and Cajun dancers, and communities living off the natural resources. He later created an extensive portfolio of formal studio portraits of the local political figures for whom he developed a fascination. While this later studio work paid his bills, the majority of Winan’s photographs were not created out of a commercial impetus but rather to satiate his own curiosity.
In an interview with The Advocate, Meriget Winans Turner recalls the occasion her father, Fonville Winans, photographed infamously corrupt political boss of Plaquemines and St Bernard Parishes, Judge Leander Perez (pictured above, bottom left). After hours of coaxing an uncooperative Perez to sit for a successful portrait, Fonville dismissed him and asked that he return at a later date. Ms. Turner says of what happened next:
“Dad told Leander Perez that this wasn’t working out…then [Perez] stopped, took a cigar out of his pocket and lit it, and my dad said, ‘hold it right there.’”
Throughout the Depression of the 1930s (and on into the 1940s) Fonville Winans continued to explore his love for the Louisiana landscape and people–for no other purpose than to get a better look.
Sources:
http://www.fonvillewinans.com/
http://www.knowla.org/entry/586/
http://theadvocate.com/features/people/9255622-123/photographer-fonville-winans-captured-history
neworleanslouisianaphotographydotcom 
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