Kerri McCaffety Biography

Bachelor of Science in anthropology at Tulane University, New Orleans, 1989
Internship with Peter Woloszynski, World of Interiors, 1995

Kerri McCaffety has photographed more than fifteen books, eight of which she also wrote. Awards for her books and images include a gold Lowell Thomas award, gold and silver Benjamin Franklin Awards, an Alpha award, New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association’s Book of the Year, and two silver Independent Publisher awards. While documenting the city’s architectural and cultural history, she has been called “stunningly skilled,” “a genius,” and “the reigning Queen of New Orleans color photography.” Her works have been deemed “pillars of Louisiana’s cultural record.”
In 1998, McCaffety published her first book, Obituary Cocktail, The Great Saloons of New Orleans, a photographic essay and history exploring the city’s social and architectural heritage through its tradition of drink. It was named Book of the Year by regional booksellers, broke sales records in New Orleans, and became a local sensation. Obituary Cocktail went on to inspire a fan club and a popular bar tour while winning major awards from the country’s two leading independent publishers’ groups.

Her books include:
Obituary Cocktail, The Great Saloons of New Orleans, 1998
The Majesty of the French Quarter, 1999
The Majesty of St. Charles Avenue (with writer Cynthia McCaffety), 2001
Masking and Madness: Mardi Gras in New Orleans (with writer Cynthia McCaffety), 2002
Etouffée, Mon Amour: The Great Restaurants of New Orleans, 2002
St. Joseph Altars, 2003
The Chandelier Through the Centuries, 2006
Napoleon House (with writer Mikko Macchione), 2006
The Finest Rooms in America by Thomas Jayne, 2010
Big Easy Style by Bryan Batt, October 2011
New Orleans New Elegance, May 2012
New Orleans City Park: Magnificent Balance of Art, Nature & Play, November 2013
Luxury, Inequity & Yellow Fever: Living Legacies and the Story of Old New Orleans, July 2014

McCaffety’s work has been featured in Metropolitan Home, House Beautiful, Interior Design, Colonial Homes, Southern Accents, The Oxford American, Home Magazine, Town and Country, Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Historic Traveler and Travel & Leisure. Her photographs are a part of the permanent collection at the Louisiana State Museum and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
In 2007 and 2008, McCaffety served as Features Editor at Louisiana Homes and Gardens Magazine.

Reviews and endorsements

One of the great photojournalists of America. –John Mariani of Esquire

Kerri knows how to capture the fleeting beauty of a moment. –Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune

[McCaffety’s] photography is flawless and captivating. –The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate

McCaffety has definitely found her niche as New Orleans’ foremost contemporary photographer.
–Shreveport Times

. . . books by Kerri McCaffety exude such an originality of both vision and soul in their portrayal of New Orleans that it almost feels like a city we didn’t know existed. –Tulanian Magazine

Her academic training in anthropology has lent to her lifetime training in the craft of photography, and to her natural and profound sense of beauty, a quick and true apprehension of the social, historical, and even mythological context of everything she sees.
–Tom Piazza, author of City of Refuge, My Cold War, and Blues and Trouble

Usually photographs don't quite capture the magic of the moment, but these still images seem to transcend their subjects. . . . Versailles could use her talents. . . . a photographic genius.
–Donald Mitchell, author and Amazon.com Top Ten reviewer

What kind of camera does she have? There is a mystery-uncorking, poetry-uncapping, surprise-producing mechanism inside it. Kodak doesn’t make it. There is only one such instrument, and I am grateful that Kerri owns it.
–Andrei Codrescu, National Public Radio correspondent and author