As it churns toward its terminus in southeastern Louisiana, the Mississippi River becomes a wide, muddy superhighway of activity, matched in might only by the megastructures of heavy industry that line its banks. The section of the river from Baton Rouge to New Orleans doubles as one of the most potent economic corridors in the country. For two decades, photographer Richard Sexton has explored this complicated region. Intrigued by juxtapositions between innovation and decay, the commercial and the residential, the manmade and the natural, he has documented in Enigmatic Stream: Industrial Landscapes of the Lower Mississippi River a quintessentially American conundrum: our insatiable desire to exploit the lower Mississippi River’s potential while still leaving room for life along its banks.

Enigmatic Stream features more than one hundred black-and-white photographs by Sexton, accented by other materials drawn from and inspired by the Mississippi River, capturing the essence of a complicated and often mysterious section of the country’s largest waterway. The exhibition’s companion catalog features select photographs from Enigmatic Stream and essays by Sexton, curator John Lawrence, and author Paul Schneider.

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Press

Art Rocks: Episode 717; Photographer Richard Sexton

Gambit: Richard Sexton explores the petrochemical corridor in his ‘Enigmatic Stream' photo exhibit

The Hill: Haunting photos of America's conflict between industry and nature

The Louisiana Weekly: New visual book relives life and commerce along the Mississippi River

The New Criterion: The father of waters

Oxford American: Eyes on the South: Artist of Industry

WWNO-FM: The Reading Life with Richard Sexton and Poppy Tooker