It might be our newest Fluevogian city, but we’re going full steam ahead in New Orleans and making it the center of our latest StreetVogs chapter! We’re putting the camera in the very capable hands of our friend & photographer Robert, aka. @shotbyrw, and are ready to learn more about the sights, history, eccentricities and characters that can be found on the humble streets of NOLA.
A bit about Robert in his own words:
“For me, the camera is a tool that gives access to the holder; it’s a secret key that brings you into back rooms, beyond barriers, and up close and personal to the action. I adore it for that reason. A photographer is allowed to peek behind the curtain and share what really happens with the rest of the world.
As a teen in the north suburbs of Chicago, I transferred high schools. On a suggestion of my father, I enrolled in a summer photography course as a way to make a few new friends and get to know the campus.
So I made friends, learned the campus, joined the newspaper as a staff photographer, became the photo editor, was ranked All State in photography (Yes, that’s a thing. No, I did not purchase a letterman jacket.). 
It would be wrong to say that from there the rest was history, though.
In truth, I never thought twice about photography as a profession, let alone a sustainable one. The camera, to me, was always another tool of expression amongst the guitar, the pen, the videocamera, or the voice. I studied philosophy and psychology in college, graduated and taught high school, completed a M.Ed. and saw myself returning for a Ph.D.
Yet somehow, today I find myself running an expanding business in New Orleans (I’l save you the explanation of how I wound up in the southern swamps from Chicago) based on the camera as a mode of support and expression training high school students in photography and booking paying gigs via a web interface.
The camera is and will continue to be my access point. A way to crack open the mysteries of a city and share them with friends, flung across the country and world alike.
New Orleans holds tight to her secret mysteries and joys, but with a camera in hand I feel I may build her trust and begin to pull back the curtain to share her true smile with the world.”
Follow us @StreetVogs and @Fluevog on Instagram for daily sights and musings as seen through the lens of this unique soul.