Cajun Document

For six months in 1974, two young photographers, fresh out of art school in Chicago, traveled through Cajun country, documenting the people, festivals, material culture, and haunting landscapes of Acadiana and its coastal outposts. Never before published or exhibited as a group, the 163 black-and-white images in Cajun Document illuminate south-central Louisiana as it stood poised on the verge of enormous change.

Coastal erosion, a boom in oil and natural gas production, and worldwide interest in Cajun music and Cajun food would shortly transform the landscape, the economy, and the culture of Acadiana forever. Douglas Baz and Charles H. Traub's sensitive, insightful photographs preserve an image of Cajun country less well known and less subject to outside influences than it would ever be again.

Distributed for the Historic New Orleans Collection

Traub's sensitive, insightful photographs preserve an image of Cajun country less well known and less subject to outside influences than it would ever be again.

Distributed for the Historic New Orleans Collection

Cajun Document is a vivid and revelatory body of work that demonstrates the power of engaged and empathic photography. As Cajun country and its culture come under renewed threat from climate change and the resulting loss of wetlands, the work of Baz and Traub is a poignant and timely record of a vibrant culture and landscape that speaks urgently to the present.

--Adam Bell, author of Vision Anew: The Lens and Screen Arts

Why do we need photographers when, today, everyone has a camera? There can be no more compelling answer than Cajun Document. Forty-five years ago Douglas Baz and Charles Traub brought their skill, their interest and their remarkable ability to frame a scene to the Bayou country of Louisiana. As a result, we have an invaluable record of a place and people and a complex celebration of a culture. Think of this book as an answer to Robert Frank's dour vision. No matter where we come from or what we believe, the book will inspire us whenever we are moved to ask, what does it mean to be American?

--Lyle Rexer, author od The Critical Eye: 14 Pictures to Understand Photography

In this vibrant retrospective, photographers Baz and Traub revisit their photos of day-to-day life in the Cajun areas of Louisiana.... Bayou lovers and photography enthusiasts will be thrilled with this gorgeous celebration of Cajun heritage.

--Publishers Weekly