Open Call Deadline September 3: Unleashed

Raymond Groscrand is a native of New Orleans.  He recently moved back to his hometown after spending 30 years in Houston, Texas. Raymond spent his time there photographing for national and regional advertising agencies, such as Olgivy and Mather and McCann Erickson.  He is known for work in large format photography and still life conceptions for Houston’s premiere graphic designers. Raymond has received numerous awards from Houston Ad Federation and Art Directors’ Club, including a national Addy.  He is currently affiliated with the New Orleans Photo Alliance and is documenting the restoration of St. Augustine Church in Treme. Raymond was invited to participate in Houston’s Photo Fest in May of this year.  He was part of a two person exhibit, Flora & Stone earlier this year at the New Orleans Photo Alliance.  His work now consists of trying to define what New Orleans means to him.  Composing his images on memories of the past and the vibrant culture of today.

Amy James

Amy James has worked as a fine art photographer in South Louisiana for over thirty years. She shoots only film while printing each image individually by hand in a shared darkroom in New Orleans. She uses natural lighting with hand-held cameras, feeling tripods and other equipment distract from the creative experience. She shoots primarily in black and white, feeling color detracts from an ethereal mood or quality that only pure black and white photography can capture. Over the years, her work has been described by many as soulful and even haunting, whether the subject matter is a human or simply a flower, or still-life.

Although she shoots primarily portraiture with much of the photographs being personal of friends or family, lately James has delved more enthusiastically into other subjects. The still-life, nature and floral images pull from her background as a BFA graduate from LSU in Painting and Drawing, where she studied with: Michael Crespo, Chris Johns, and Bob Hausey — with a minor in Photography, where professor’s AJ Meek and Tom Neff still serve as her cherished photographic mentors today. She has also studied photography in Maine Media workshops with esteemed photographers such as Keith Carter, and Paul Caponigro.

James has displayed her work in numerous galleries and even billboards across the South in cities such as: Ruston, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Oxford, Birmingham and Dallas. Her writings and photographs have been published regionally and nationally in magazines such as Louisiana Home & Garden, In Register, Country Roads, 225 Magazine, Bayou Life and Delta Style — nationally in Veranda and Ladies Home Journal and internationally in SHOTS magazine.