If you walk down Santa Cruz’s Pacific Avenue, you may find yourself surrounded by music of all types. This popular street serves as a free and open venue for local musicians to perform for the public. Guitarists, saxophonists, flautists and many other types of musicians come to the streets to share their music.

Peter Lindener, a local saxophonist who has spent about seven years practicing on the street, said, “I don’t busk for money, I just figure I should be thankful the street puts up with me learning how to play.”

A shakuhachi flautist — someone who plays a Japanese shakuhachi flute — named Tracy said one of the reasons she enjoys performing on the street is because “it’s nice to have people listen.”

“I play all kinds of music,” she added, “I play flute, guitar. I write originals. I play reggae, rock and roll, Grateful Dead, some jazz.”

While Pacific Avenue is usually known for being busy with people shopping at all the various stores downtown, a visit there can relieve stress through the music heard.

Lindener recommends to anyone with a stressful lifestyle to “find a release like art or music. You’ll find that’ll keep you whole while you’re dealing with something that might be really hard to do.”

E Cooper Housing Project Central City 2005, 2006. Photo courtesy of Lewis Watts

Years after enduring a natural disaster, the city of New Orleans remains full of hope and culture. UC Santa Cruz photography professor Lewis Watts revisits the city before and after Hurricane Katrina in his exhibit “New Orleans Suite,” which opened Oct. 3 at the Sesnon Gallery at Porter College.

Watts said he aimed to capture the richness of culture as well as the enduring spirit of New Orleans residents. He said the preservation of the city culture has been the job of musicians and New Orleans natives.

“[They’ve] actually been kind of responsible for something that’s more genuine,” Watts said. “Trying to keep those cultures alive has been one of the signature marks of recovery in New Orleans.”

Watts received his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, where he would later return to teach for 23 years. During graduate school, Watts discovered his interest in photography after working at a photo lab. Even though photography was not in his original plans, within two weeks of taking his first class, Watts knew that photography was his passion.

Originally an architecture major, Watts is captivated by the endurance of the people, the buildings and structures that decorate New Orleans.

Several photos depict faces of buildings that are covered in spray painted phrases that say “one occupant” and other similar phrases.

His photograph, “To the Ancestors,” displays two older women pouring out liquid. Dressed in black and white, the people in the photograph are paying respects to the deceased, a tradition kept alive by families in New Orleans.

Norman Locks, another photography professor at UCSC, attended the gallery opening and admired the scale of the photographs.

“When they’re small, you recognize people. When they’re large, you recognize the community,” Locks said.

All of Watts’s photographs were captured in black and white film, an aspect that director and curator of the Sesnon Gallery, Shelby Graham, said she hopes to spotlight in “New Orleans Suite.”

“Lewis brings back that tradition of photography, and yet I can still call this contemporary because he is photographing a historically provocative subject,” Graham said.

Photo courtesy of Lewis Watts

The photograph titled “Raising the Casket, Funeral Procession Through the Tremè,” captures several hands carrying a casket in a funeral procession. During the procession, a jazz band would lead with somber music, followed by the second line band, which played after the body was buried. Watts said this was to “represent that they no longer carried the burden of life.”

Watts ties together emotional content with traditional technique, said gallery manager and assistant curator Mark Shunney.

“[Watts] related to the early American photographer, that used black and white to document the social struggles of what this country is trying to find itself in,” Shunney said.

As his photographs of jazz musicians were debuted at the Sesnon on Oct. 3, New Orleans-style bands “2nd Line Jazz” band and “MJ’s Brass Boppers” brought jazz culture to life.

In addition to “New Orleans Suite,” “New Work from Cuba” will also be displayed in the Watts’s exhibition. A smaller room of the Sesnon Gallery has photographs from Cuba that demonstrate the vibrant atmosphere of a country that is “undergoing rapid and constant change.”

In “New Work from Cuba,” snapshots of Cubans’ everyday lives are accentuated by Cuban music playing in the background. A piece titled “Religious Procession Old Havana 2010” shows a man kneeling in the middle of a busy walkway displaying printed religious imagery on a figure of a saint.

Watts said the richness in culture makes Cuba and New Orleans very similar.

Both New Orleans Suite and New Work from Cuba will be displayed at the Porter College Sesnon Gallery until Nov. 21. 

Bookshop Santa Cruz, a downtown fixture since 1966, has opened the submission period for its annual photography contest with hopes that more UCSC students will enter the competition this year. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Every year, Bookshop Santa Cruz holds a series of contests in which aspiring authors and photographers can convey their visions to the local community — and every year, the staff at Bookshop Santa Cruz is blown away by the submissions. May 25 marks the beginning of the submission period for this year’s photography contest, which is already a source of excitement for Bookshop Santa Cruz employees.

“The images are all really creative, and the bulk of them are taken by amateur photographers,” said Casey Coonerty, Bookshop Santa Cruz owner and manager. Her family has owned the independent bookstore since 1973.

The annual photography contest will conclude by celebrating its 16th birthday in autumn 2010. Students, locals, and anyone else interested in participating are encouraged to send in an image that displays a unique visual representation of what it means to read.

The photo contest — which receives at least 100 submissions annually—calls for a unique expression of reading. Those who are eager to express their ideas are also drawn by the prizes offered to the first, second, and third place winners, which include gift certificates of $250, publishing of submissions online, and a display of submissions in the store.

Takaki Metoki, a Santa Cruz local who has participated in the contest in the past, was eager to get started on his submission for this year’s competition.

“I’ve been brainstorming ideas, but I don’t have a really definite idea right now,” he said.

According to Coonerty, past submissions have been extremely varied. Coonerty has seen pictures taken in places all over the world, from shantytowns in developing countries to right here in Santa Cruz.

Bookshop Santa Cruz employees have expressed an interest in seeing more participation from UC Santa Cruz students in the contest.

“Students offer ideas that reflect their place in the community,” said Adrienne Mages, a Bookshop Santa Cruz employee. “I think we’d all like to have more students get involved in the contest.”

Employees look forward to judging the photos and selecting a winner. Submissions are due on September 1, which allows ample time to select a photo for submission. Coonerty also said that the Bookshop accepts submissions via U.S. mail so that the contest is more accessible to community members at a distance. Literary enthusiasts are encouraged to apply.

Be sure to check these photo essays out:

Photo Essay: Autumn
By Rosaria Serna

Photo Essay: Expression
By Devika Agarwal

Photo Essay: San Francisco
By Nita Rose-Evans

Photo Essay: New South Wales, Australia
By Isaac Miller