BRAS-COUPE
Edited, designed, and produced in collaboration with Eliot Dudik.
Saddle-stitched with signed archival pigment print.
Edition of 50 (sold out)
He spoke, not with his lips, but with the recoil of his splendid frame and the ferocious expansion of his eyes. This invitation was a cataract of lightning leaping down an ink-black sky.
No ouanga (We are bewitched).
Bras-Coupé fe moi de grisgris (The voudou’s spells are on me).
A whiff like fifty witches flouted up the canvas curtain of the gallery and a fierce black cloud, drawing the moon under its cloak, belched forth a stream of fire that seemed to flood the ground; a peal of thunder followed as if the sky had fallen in, the house quivered, the great oaks groaned, and every lesser thing bowed down before the awful blast. Every lip held its breath for a minute – or an hour, no one knew – there was a sudden lull of the wind, and the floods came down.
Have you heard it thunder and rain in those Louisiana lowlands?
Photographed, edited, designed, printed, and bound during the 2015 PhotoNOLA festival, bras-coupé is the first one day project by Eliot Dudik and Jared Ragland. The book features photographs inspired by the Louisiana folk tale of Bras-Coupé, a one-armed enslaved person turned outlaw brigand. Multiple myths surround the character, describing him as both boogeyman and folk hero, talismanic figure and cautionary tale. From Congo Square in New Orleans to the swamps of Barataria, Dudik and Ragland have created a series of photographs that tap into the mysteries of forgotten history yet also reflect upon how white supremacy and violence continues to be played out generations later. Each handmade book, limited to an edition of 50 copies, includes a signed 5x7" pigment print.
bras-coupé is the first ONE DAY PROJECTS book created in collaboration with Eliot Dudik. Projects have been exhibited at the Phoenix Museum of Art, Candela Gallery and Books, and Griffn Museum of Photography and are placed in collections at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Phoenix Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, New Orleans’ Contemporary Art Center, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, Duke University Archive of Documentary Arts, The College of William & Mary, Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Walter Royal Davis Library, and the Washington & Lee University Leyburn Library.
.....................................
![]()
bras-coupé, 2015
.....................................
Saddle-stitched with signed archival pigment print.
Edition of 50 (sold out)
He spoke, not with his lips, but with the recoil of his splendid frame and the ferocious expansion of his eyes. This invitation was a cataract of lightning leaping down an ink-black sky.
No ouanga (We are bewitched).
Bras-Coupé fe moi de grisgris (The voudou’s spells are on me).
A whiff like fifty witches flouted up the canvas curtain of the gallery and a fierce black cloud, drawing the moon under its cloak, belched forth a stream of fire that seemed to flood the ground; a peal of thunder followed as if the sky had fallen in, the house quivered, the great oaks groaned, and every lesser thing bowed down before the awful blast. Every lip held its breath for a minute – or an hour, no one knew – there was a sudden lull of the wind, and the floods came down.
Have you heard it thunder and rain in those Louisiana lowlands?
Photographed, edited, designed, printed, and bound during the 2015 PhotoNOLA festival, bras-coupé is the first one day project by Eliot Dudik and Jared Ragland. The book features photographs inspired by the Louisiana folk tale of Bras-Coupé, a one-armed enslaved person turned outlaw brigand. Multiple myths surround the character, describing him as both boogeyman and folk hero, talismanic figure and cautionary tale. From Congo Square in New Orleans to the swamps of Barataria, Dudik and Ragland have created a series of photographs that tap into the mysteries of forgotten history yet also reflect upon how white supremacy and violence continues to be played out generations later. Each handmade book, limited to an edition of 50 copies, includes a signed 5x7" pigment print.
bras-coupé is the first ONE DAY PROJECTS book created in collaboration with Eliot Dudik. Projects have been exhibited at the Phoenix Museum of Art, Candela Gallery and Books, and Griffn Museum of Photography and are placed in collections at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Phoenix Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, New Orleans’ Contemporary Art Center, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, Duke University Archive of Documentary Arts, The College of William & Mary, Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Walter Royal Davis Library, and the Washington & Lee University Leyburn Library.
.....................................
bras-coupé, 2015
.....................................