PHOTO EXHIBIT: NO MAN

Show Review by Holly Devon for ANTIGRAVITY Magazine

“There may be no substitute for the thrill of live music, but ANTIGRAVITY photo editor Adrienne Battistella’s solo show at Suis Generis (showing through January 5) comes pretty damn close. NO MAN is a first rate series of portraits of some of the raddest and baddest female and nonbinary musicians who have come through New Orleans in the last decade. Technically the compositions are flawless; one image shows an otherworldly Alynda Segarra playing in an old and opulent church. A candelabra gleams above her head and almost unbelievably, rays of light emanate from her banjo like a benediction. The series features some real legends; in one, Erykah Badu, her face laced with shadow, salutes an Essence Festival crowd. In another, Dolly Parton sashays across the stage cradling a bedazzled acoustic guitar. But the show really comes to life in the grit and grime of the New Orleans underground. Shots like the one of Monet Maloof, crouched onstage shrieking into the mic, take all the kinetic energy of a live show and compress it into a single frame. Gland’s Kallie Tiffau kneels down and bends backwards into a sweaty Saturn Bar crowd; Valerie June beams above her guitar in the unmistakable Circle Bar alcove. These photos feel warmly familiar, but when you realize you are looking at pictures of a bygone era, they hit you like a gut punch. For most of us, it’s nearly impossible to recognize a golden age until it’s already over. But the best photographers can catch these moments midair and strip them down to their essence. In NO MAN, Battistella does exactly that, leaving us with a vision of our glory days to last until the next ones come along.” —Holly Devon

Interview with Real Producers Magazine