The Beauty of a Duck Blind

Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Photograph by Nell Campbell
Moss Bluff Bay I, 2001

“I look at duck blinds as vernacular architecture in Louisiana,” says Nell Campbell. The Mississippi-born, California-based photographer has captured some fifty-six blinds along the Calcasieu River over two decades as part of her Duck Blinds: Louisiana series. Though not a hunter herself, Campbell grew up in nearby Lake Charles, water-skiing on the Calcasieu, and she revisits the blinds on her trips back home. She shoots on old-school film using a Mamiya 7 camera, explaining that when she does, “I’m more thoughtful,” as each roll yields only ten pictures. She took this image from the bow of a childhood friend’s bass boat on a late December afternoon. “With the moss hanging from the cypress knees and the palmetto leaves,” Campbell says, “this shot just feels quintessential Louisiana.”