Old Oaks and Human Histories at Laura Plantation

Louisiana writer and fine art photographer William Guion made his name with atmospheric portraits of the iconic live oak trees of Louisiana and California. But for his latest project, Guion trained camera and pen on a broader canvas: Laura Plantation—the unique Creole interpretive site that is one of the most popular destinations for visitors to the Great Mississippi River Road. Laura, which was established in 1804 by French Creole planters, is shaded by magnificent live oaks, and it was these to which Guion was first drawn in 2016. Transfixed by the resulting photographs, Laura owners Norman and Sand Marmillion asked Guion to create a book of images chronicling the entire site and urged him to pair them with lyrical personal essays capturing his impressions of the house and grounds. Beginning in March 2017, Guion began visiting Laura once or twice a week in the early morning, before the crowds arrived. “I would wander the grounds, listen to the place, and let it tell me what it wants me to see,” he said. 

Although there are no people in the photographs in Laura Plantation: Images and Impressions, they are not exactly absent, either. In Guion’s opinion, it’s the presence of the people who lived at Laura over two centuries that makes the site compelling subject matter. “Photographing oak trees for thirty years has made me intuitive to places,” he observed. “I walk onto a place and get feelings about the history of those that have lived there. “Wherever you find an old live oak, there’s human history there, too.”

Asked to name any particular trees that stand out for him, Guion pointed to the four live oaks that flank the front of the plantation house. “The oldest is the one close to the old cannon,” he noted. “But I’m fonder of some of the others—the ones with strong personalities. There’s one that leans towards the house and shades it,” he said fondly.

Laura Plantation: Images and Impressions is available for $21.95 from the Laura gift shop or website as well as specialty area bookstores. View more of Guion’s work at williamguion.com.