The Camera’s Sanctuary: Photographing the Queer Gardens of the Vieux Carré

This thesis explores the French Quarter courtyard as a site of queer sanctuary, memory, and community through a lens-based artistic practice. Drawing on historical and contemporary photographs, installations, and collaborations with friends and community members, the work examines how gardens and courtyards have long functioned as both physical and metaphysical spaces of refuge for the queer community in New Orleans. The project is grounded in both archival recovery and contemporary practice, combining the still image with sculptural installations that reframe the visual vernacular of gay clubs within these historic spaces. By slowing down the photographic process and attuning to both the private and public histories within each courtyard, I seek to honor the complexity of these spaces as sites of sanctuary. Ultimately, this work contributes to a living queer archive—one rooted in place, guided by care, and shaped by the ongoing relationship between image-making, memory, and community.