Matthew D. White and Big Vision Media Partner to Raise Funds for "The End of the Great River: Photographs of the Lower Mississippi River Delta"
Mississippi River Delta Photo Documentary Seeks Funding

BATON ROUGE, LA, September 15, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Matthew D. White and Big Vision Media are currently seeking funds to continue White's photographic documentation of the Mississippi River Delta, from Port Sulphur in Plaquemines Parish, LA south to the end of the three passes that drain the river into the Gulf of Mexico — Pass a Loutre; South Pass; and Southwest Pass. This delta, full of history, culture, and industry, is sparsely populated and rarely seen in detail by outsiders, but is a landscape of vast, simplistic beauty.

White began photography for the project in the spring of 2000, shot on both black and white film and in color digital, and continues to the present day. As lower Plaquemines Parish was decimated by Hurricane Katrina (as well as having quite a long history with other notable storms of the past), it has been proposed by some involved with coastal rebuilding efforts that the area be eventually abandoned and allowed to slowly sink into the Gulf over time.

"In this collection I have shot nearly every named location in lower Plaquemines Parish and have what is a very detailed and thorough collection of images" said White. "One such location is Pilottown, the historic home of the Bar Pilots, which I shot on black and white film in January, 2005. After it was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, I returned there in April of 2008 to find this one-of- a-kind town, the last manned outpost on the Mississippi River, barely hanging on; a few pilot houses were being rebuilt, while the remainder of former homes along the river completely vanished".

The goal of this photo collection is to document for posterity this time and place in the landscape — one that is slowly fading away, perhaps forever. The area was also impacted by disaster when oil washed ashore during the recent Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. A touring exhibition of images from the collection opened at the Port of New Orleans in December 2009 and is currently showing at The Wealth Planners Gallery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, http://www.juliebuckner.com/wealthplannersgallery.html). The exhibit will continue to tour in 2011.

Funds are needed now for a new phase of work to shoot endangered historical landmarks in some of the more remote and hard to reach locations of The Mississippi River Delta such as Pilottown, LA, the last outpost on the Mississippi River, Fort St. Philip, a decommissioned masonry fort on the east bank of the Mississippi River, and an endangered lighthouse - and to expand the exhibit collection. For more information see the Project Website at http://www.endofthegreatriver.com and the fundraising site at IndieGoGo, a crowd funding platform that helps creative people raise funds for independent projects, http://www.indiegogo.com/The-End-of-the-Great-River.

Press Release Contact Information:

Margaret Saizan
Big Vision Media
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