C.C. Lockwood
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When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, our thoughts immediately went to C.C. Lockwood, who has photographed the natural wonders of Louisana and the Gulf Coast since 1971.

West Coast Imaging partnered with Lockwood to create prints for his Marsh Mission Project, which documents the vanishing wetlands of Louisiana. Due to the Mississippi River's extensive levee system, Louisiana loses 24 square miles of marsh land each year, and over a million acres have disappeared since the 1930s. Bothered by how much the marshes had changed since he began photographing, Lockwood teamed up with painter Rhea Gary to journey through the marshes on a houseboat, documenting the marshland in its current state. The result of their explorations is a book and corresponding exhibition, geared toward building awareness of the problem, and encouraging solutions. When Hurricane Katrina hit, we knew that the prints we made for Lockwood suddenly offered an historic perspective on what the marshland looked like, before the Category 5 hurricane--The USGS estimates that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita took over 100 square miles of wetlands.

Lockwood was in the bottom of the Grand Canyon when Katrina struck, and was stunned to hear about the devastation when he emerged from the back country. As a photographer who has published 10 books, and who has been featured in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and countless other magazines, Lockwood's natural response was to photograph the damage. He spent countless hours documenting Hurricane damage and after-effects from a helicopter, using his 35mm camera and film. Over two months after the hurricane, he still spends 2-3 days a week, documenting the aftermath. Take a few moments to view some of his hurricane images on his website.

Today, we invite you to view the photographs featured in C.C. Lockwood's Marsh Mission Project Exhibition, which is on display through mid-February at the Louisiana State University Museum of Art. We were pleased to partner with him to create the prints for this outstanding exhibition, and to help him protect one of our national treasures: the wetlands of Louisiana.