Frank Relle

Career

After graduating from Tulane University with degrees in cognitive science and philosophy, Relle accompanied a researcher to Canada to study and photograph carnivorous plants. Relle then went to New York City to study photography, where he worked as an assistant to renowned photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Arnold Newman. While working on movie sets and in photography studios, Frank gained a new understanding of lighting. Relle describes feeling "lost in the bright lights and dark rooms of New York", however, and in 2004 moved back to his hometown of New Orleans.

Nightscapes (2004 - 2008)

Relle's return to New Orleans coincided with Hurricane Katrina, a storm that left the city abandoned and displaced 90% of its inhabitants. He set about documenting the devastation in the years that followed, particularly focusing on what became of the structures that were left behind. He often risked run-ins with National Guard patrols in abandoned neighborhoods to get his long-exposure shots of the flooded houses.

“Nightscapes” says David Gonzalez of the New York Times, featured everything “from grand manses to shotgun shacks. The images glow with a moody mix of colors, each one hinting at the dramas and routines played out inside.”

Relle developed his project almost by accident in 2004 when he showed a friend how to take a long-exposure photograph at night. He liked the images and continued to shoot at night. Sometimes he used available street light or plugged his lighting rig into an outlet while the home’s owner was asleep. As his technical proficiency grew, and he began to use a lighting truck, he also got permission from homeowners to shoot and received help from the police to close down streets.

But it was from initially driving around in his grandmother’s Lincoln Town Car, he has said, that he found a unique perspective. “I discovered a new way to see. Low to the ground, that wide, old windshield provided the best viewfinder I’ve ever used. Shot from 2004 to the present, the photographs are lit to capture the mood from that same perspective. The images leave room for the viewers’ interpretations and for a cast of characters to take position in the foreground.”

In Relle's May 2014 New York Times profile, he is quoted as saying, “There are no people in my photos, but they are all character sketches of the people I grew up with. I want to make things that encapsulate that and are able to communicate that not in explicit terms, but giving people access and letting them create their own narratives.”

In “Nightscapes,” Relle sheds new light not only on architecture as a reflection of its inhabitants, but also on what critics have described as “Southern Gothic allegories” of man and nature, past and present, and prosperity and decay. Arts lobbyist and educator Elizabeth Gordon has argued that because Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in the United States since the earthquakes in San Francisco in the 1800s, it was important that it was documented. “ Someone had to record it in a way that would grasp its enormity and inconsolable loss,” she says of Hurricane Katrina, “Frank Relle has done that."

“Nightscapes” has been exhibited all over the country. One of its photographs became the cover image of the New York Times Best Seller "Nine Lives" by Dan Baum, and it was accepted into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

One Life One Life (2007)

While shooting his "Nightscapes" series, Relle met a man on the street that convinced him it wasn't safe to be alone, roaming the streets of New Orleans, which at the time was the third most murderous city in America. Relle took the man's advice and hired an off-duty police officer to accompany him on his nightly shoots. Relle became interested in the stories behind New Orleans' murder statistics, and found that his ride-along officer could provide detailed personal accounts about the shooters and victims.

“One Life One Life” was the result of this interest. The photo series documents the desolate empty lots, sidewalks, and front yards where random, unsolved murders in New Orleans had taken place. Photographed at night, each photograph is titled simply with the murder victim’s name, date of birth, and date murdered. To underscore the singularity of the person whose life was extinguished, each photograph is a limited edition print of one. All proceeds from "One Life One Life" were donated to Efforts of Grace, a non-profit organization fostering community development and education.

Inside Out Project: Faces of Hope (2012)

Relle is a close friend of famed former-New Orleans Saints Safety, Steve Gleason, who revealed in 2011 that he was battling ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Relle decided to raise awareness for Gleason and his organization (Team Gleason) by participating in the Inside Out Project, and provided an avenue for others in the community to do the same. "Faces of Hope" featured large-scale expressive portraits of people in the community that were posted on outdoor walls throughout New Orleans' Bayou St. John neighborhood. In a report with Fox 8's Meg Gatto, Relle explained, “So many people in the community want to give something back to him, and so by photographing the people, and then posting them around, it's like the images for Steve are saying, ‘We're putting on our best face for you.'”

Night Shade: Exploring Natural Spaces (2013)

In "Night Shade: Exploring Natural Spaces," Relle turns his attention to nature. New Orleans journalist Kat Stromquist says Frank is “creating haunting images of the dissonance between overgrowth and decay in the humid city. Some photographs frame City Park oaks with immaculate landscaping and symmetrical stars. In others, like images of the West Bank’s Brechtel Park, vines and epiphytes overrun trees to create a darklit forest out of Tolkien.””

Accolades

Collections

Exhibitions