New Orleans in the ’90s
December 14, 2025
Lecture: 1 p.m.,
Community Photo Reception: 2–4 p.m.
Lecture: 410 Chartres Street
Reception: 520 Royal Street
Free admission, registration required
HNOC is excited to welcome photographers Cheryl Gerber and Gus Bennett and members of HNOC’s digital collections staff for a special behind-the-lens conversation about the New Orleans photography scene in the 1990s. Presented in conjunction with the annual PhotoNOLA festival, the 2025 Jules L. Cahn John H. Lawrence Photography Lecture will explore the era’s street photography scene and photojournalism through the lens of the Times Picayune archive in HNOC’s holdings.
At 1 p.m. in HNOC’s Williams Research Center, our panelists will discuss their favorite moments, practices, and trends from the time period. Immediately following the lecture, attendees are invited to a community reception and photo sharing experience at 520 Royal Street—learn more below.
Join us! Community Photo Sharing Reception
Following the lecture, from 2 to 4 p.m., attendees and local community organizations are invited to take a trip down memory lane and participate in a communal photo sharing experience hosted at HNOC’s 520 Royal Street campus. We encourage participants to dig out and share their old photo albums, snapshots, and Polaroids depicting New Orleans neighborhoods, Carnival season moments, block parties, bars, and other reflections of ’90s-era life in the city. Complimentary light refreshments will be provided.
Reserve a Table
Do you have a collection of photos to share? Reserve a free table through our form below. Otherwise, access to space at the reception will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Panelists
Gus Bennett
Gus Bennett
Gus Bennett is a New Orleans-based photographer and visual storyteller whose photographs connect with the spirit, resiliency, and cultural beauty of everyday people. For more than four decades, he has chronicled the soul of New Orleans through such projects as Organic Watermarks, the New Orleans People Project, and BlkCODE, which weave together portraiture, history, and social commentary.
Bennett’s images serve as both witness and homage to the particularity of Black identity, community, and everyday life. Having received national and international acclaim, Bennett seizes every opportunity to document the story of a city whose people are its most authentic art.
Cheryl Gerber
Cheryl Gerber
Cheryl Gerber is an award-winning documentary photographer based in her native New Orleans. During her 35-year career, she has been a regular contributor to The New York Times, the Associated Press, New Orleans Magazine, and Gambit. She is the author of three books: New Orleans: Life and Death in the Big Easy, Cherchez La Femme: New Orleans Women, and most recently The Danse Macabre: Celebration and Survival in New Orleans. Gerber divides her time between her three favorite places—the Faubourg Marigny, Mississippi, and Mexico—where she lives with her musician husband and their cat, Joan, named after Joan Didion.
Jane Hill
Jane Hill
Jane Hill is the contract photo processor for the Times-Picayune Negative Archive at the Historic New Orleans Collection. She graduated from the University of New Orleans in 2024 with a bachelor of fine arts. Previously, she completed the Photographic Preservation and Collections Management internship at HNOC where she cataloged prints from the Harold Baquet archive. Jane enjoys film, audiovisual preservation, and recording music in her spare time.
Catie Sampson
Catie Sampson
Catie Sampson is the digital collections archivist at the Historic New Orleans Collection, where she has worked since 2020. She received her bachelor of fine arts from Louisiana State University in 2012 and her master’s degree in library and information science in 2019. In 2015, Sampson was awarded the Michael P. Smith Fund for Documentary Photography through the New Orleans Photo Alliance for her project, All the Place You've Got.
Mallory Taylor
Mallory Taylor
Mallory Taylor holds a master of arts in photographic preservation and collections management and a bachelor of fine arts in photography. Following graduation, she joined the esteemed fine art photography appraisal firm, Penelope Dixon & Associates, where she honed her expertise in valuating large photographic archives and collections. Since 2013, she has worked at the Historic New Orleans Collection, where she continues her work in photographic preservation, collection stewardship, and community outreach programs.
Support
The Jules L. Cahn John H. Lawrence Photography Lecture is presented in conjunction with the annual PhotoNOLA festival, produced by the New Orleans Photo Alliance.
Explore the Cahn-Lawrence Lecture
The Jules L. Cahn John H. Lawrence Photography Lecture series aims to spotlight fresh voices and perspectives on photography of Louisiana and the Gulf South. Presented annually as part of PhotoNOLA, New Orleans’s citywide photography festival, the lecture series is a tribute to John H. Lawrence, longtime curator of photography and director of museum programs, who retired in 2020.
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