A lot of New Orleans-based photographer Virginia Hanusik’s work over the last decade has focused on the architecture, infrastructure and landscapes of South Louisiana.
Striking photos of single-story homes atop tall stilts, powerlines stretching across Lake Pontchartrain or a Plaquemines fruit stand juxtaposed with a distant refinery all illustrate the ways South Louisianans have learned to live in a region defined by its relationship with water, the oil and gas industry and, increasingly, the climate crisis.
“Part of focusing so much on architecture and the infrastructure of this place is because those are the things I look at to really symbolize how we’ve engineered our way into this crisis and into living in this landscape,” Hanusik says.
Photographer Virginia Hanusik’s book ‘Into the Quiet and the Light’ reflects on water and life in South Louisiana.
Her new book “Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life and Land Loss in South Louisiana” collects many of her photos taken since 2014. The photos are paired with essays, pieces of poetry, a history or even a recipe from a host of collaborators, including delta guide Richie Blink, artist and activist Imani Jacqueline Brown, The Water Collaborative Executive Director Jessica Dandridge, historian Andy Horowitz and musician Louis Michot.
“There are so many people who are committed to making Louisiana not just exist but be a place where more communities can thrive and exist more in harmony with our natural environment,” Hanusik says. “I’m grateful so many folks were able to write these pieces because I think it demonstrates there are many people who are doing good work, ranging from advocacy and policy work to cultural preservation.”
Hanusik’s goal was to de-center herself and allow people who have impacted her career and work to “frame the book in a way that really opens it up to interpretation,” she says.
“It could be hopeful. It could be really sad. It can be a mix of those things,” Hanusik says, “and that’s intentional because that’s how I feel … not just [as] a resident of Louisiana but as someone who lives in the compounding environmental crises we’re dealing with.”
Garden District Books will host a release event at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, for “Into the Quiet and the Light,” which is published by Columbia Books on Architecture and the City.
Hanusik will moderate a panel discussion with Dandridge, chef Nini Nguyen, former United Houma Nation vice-principal chief Mike “T. Mayheart” Dardar and author Nathaniel Rich. There also will be a release party on June 20 at Courtyard Brewery.
Hanusik moved to New Orleans in 2014 after college. With a background in architecture and a fan of photographers like William Eggleston and Bernd and Hilla Becher, her work naturally gravitated to the area’s human-built environment and landscapes.
“You ask questions around architecture itself and you get to … thinking about the social and economic aspects that influenced the structural components,” Hanusik explains of her fascination with these areas.
In South Louisiana, water has uniquely informed the ways people build and live. It affects how we eat, we work, where and how we build our houses and our music. It even has a say in when we need to run for safety.
Likewise, the fossil fuel industry and the climate crisis have had a similar hand in shaping not only the natural environment but how residents interact with it.
Hanusik opens “Into the Quiet and the Light” with a long essay dissecting how artistic representations of Louisiana have informed wider perceptions of the state, including the 1948 Academy Award-nominated “Louisiana Story,” which was backed by the Standard Oil Company.
“It is one of many works reminding us that landscape representation is not neutral,” Hanusik writes. “It is both an inherently subjective and affective medium — connecting with and influencing our relationships, associations and attitudes toward particular places.”
As a result, the book’s written pieces are in conversation with Hanusik’s black and white photos. Landscape architect Kate Orff writes about the lasting, inadvertent impacts of the levee system. Mike “T. Mayheart” Dardar reflects on the Houma way of life — and the threats presented by coastal erosion.
Nini Nguyen includes a recipe for chao tôm and writes about the Vietnamese influence on the region, and Louis Michot closes the book with a bittersweet lyric poem in both Louisiana French and English.
“There are moments where things are a bit more light-hearted, and there are times where it’s almost in a place of despair,” Hanusik says. “But that’s the reality of just living here in this moment in time.”
The June 11 book release event is free to attend but RSVP is requested via gardendistrictbookshop.com. Find more about Hanusik at virginiahanusik.com.
