St. Joseph Altars
Description
The acclaimed New Orleans photographer captures the celebration of St. Joseph's Day through images and traditional Sicilian recipes.
According to legend, Saint Joseph sent rain to save the people of Sicily from drought during the Middle Ages. To thank their patron saint, Sicilians made offerings of their finest crops to feed the poor--a display of food and faith that continues today. This beautiful custom, La Tavola di San Giuseppe, came to America as immigrants formed what is still the largest Sicilian population in the United States in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In 120 color photographs, Kerri McCaffety shows a sparkling array of Saint Joseph altars where flowers, candles, and photographs of lost loved ones crowd around statues of saints on three-tiered shrines piled with biscotti, pane, cuccidati, frittate, and pignolatti. In addition to describing the spiritual symbolism of these foods, McCafferty includes recipes for the most important dishes, including a cannoli recipe from Emeril Lagasse.
Nineteen recipes contributed by local Saint Joseph aficionados--from a Sicilian grandmother to New Orleans' most famous chef--include traditional Italian cookies and sweets, baked fish, and bread believed to have the power to calm a storm.
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"Kerri's work is lush with natural light that makes the images sensual and rich, and transforms the places she photographs into poems." --Francis Ford Coppola
"One of the great photojournalists of America." --John Mariani
By the age of fifteen, Kerri McCaffety had already worked for a small-town newspaper and won numerous awards for her poetry. At Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, she majored in both photography and creative writing. She then moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University's Newcomb College. There she earned a degree in anthropology with a concentration in ethnographic documentary, going on to photograph people and their environs in Europe, Central Africa, and Haiti.
Her first publication, Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloons of New Orleans, was named Book of the Year by the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association. The same group named McCaffety Author for the Year for 1998. She went on to receive the 1999 Gold Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers and was named one of New Orleans Magazine's People to Watch that same year. Her works have earned her Gold and Silver Benjamin Franklin Awards, an Alpha award, and two Silver Independent Publisher Book Awards, among other accolades.
McCaffety's writing and photojournalism have appeared in such publications as Oxford American, Town and Country, Historic Traveler, Colonial Homes, Southern Accents, Travel + Leisure, Metropolitan Home, and Louisiana Cultural Vistas. In 2007 and 2008, McCaffety served as features editor for Louisiana Homes and Gardens Magazine. She continues her award-winning work documenting the architectural and cultural history of her adoptive city of New Orleans.