J. Nash Porter was born and raised in New Orleans and owned and operated Porter’s Photography, a full-time photographic studio specializing in portraits, documentary, and commercial photography from1972 to 2007. He was formally trained at San Francisco State and the University of California at Berkeley. His photographic exhibits encompass an amalgam of African American blues and jazz musicians and traditional culture of the American South, West Africa, and the Caribbean, but his most prolific work is with the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians. Porter states, “Through the lens of my camera, I share with others the exciting tradition that I grew up with. Hopefully, I can ignite a spark of enthusiasm and bring about awareness in other communities for the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians.”