Relics 2016: Standing Alone, Standing Strong

It happens a few times a year, said photographer Gary Dauphin. In the day’s earliest hours, a fog blows off the Mississippi and engulfs the well-preserved plantations that hug River Road. “It’s so thick in the morning that you can’t see the car in front of you,” said Dauphin, who works as director of media production at Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie.

One such morning found him next door at St. Joseph Plantation, where he spied a chimney by its lonesome, stark in the foreground of the big house. Not the fog, but time and the elements, had taken the chimney’s former home. “It was an old wooden house that a family still lived in up until ten years ago,” said Dauphin. The building was nearly a hundred years old and had been moved to the front of the plantation—not a traditional location for a house like that, added Dauphin. “St. Joseph eventually made the difficult decision to tear it down,” he said, “but they decided to leave the chimney in place. I don’t know if it was that it would cost more or if they just thought it was beautiful.”

In his work at Oak Alley, Dauphin looks for unusual perspectives of the plantation’s well-trod grounds to share on social media accounts. “We try to capture some things that our visitors might not have seen the last time,” he said.

Dauphin also helps to run an Oak Alley photography contest three times a year; the competition welcomes amateurs, professionals, and HDR enthusiasts to vie for prizes in each category. “Sometimes they send angles that I’d never imagine,” said Dauphin, who challenges himself to recreate the more stunning shots. “I still do see things that surprise me.”

Oak Alley Plantation ends its summer photography contest on August 31 and opens the fall contest on September 1. Visit oakalleyplantation.com/photocontest. View more of Dauphin’s work by following @oakalleyplantation on Instagram. Details on joining our Relics series here.