Customer Reviews

Majesty of the French Quarter, The (Majesty Architecture)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While I may not personally know all the people represented in this book, it is one of the finest presentations of my neighborhood I've ever seen. Not only that, it also gives the casual visitor to the neighborhood, the brief chance to look inside the beautiful buildings that they see. I wish I could have been with her on the photo shoots and I (jealously) wish she had photographed mine...it's kind of great too.

I really love New Orleans and really love this book! The pictures in it are beautiful and really capture the French Quarter well. I love having this book so that when I miss NOLA, I can just open it up and feel like I'm there! I also like using this book for decorating ideas. I would suggest this book to anyone who loves New Orleans, or someone looking for decorating ideas. It is a great addition to my New Orleans books collection!

Having been raised in New Orleans over 40 years ago, it's thrilling to see a new perpsective of the beautiful "old haunts". Visitors to the French Quarter rarely ever glimpse the magnificent beauty to behold. This book guides the reader through a fabulous tour of private and public places, with a fresh vision of their intrigue. Kerri has really captured the visual magic and splendor which is so hard to describe; but, seeing is believeing! Exquisite gift to all, Kerri!

I couldn't wait to receive my copy of "The Majesty of the French Quarter" and it is everything I had hoped for and more. I've traveled to many cities in the United States through the years but I keep going back to New Orleans. The French Quarter is a magical place where you can be anybody you want to be. While walking through "The Quarter", I've always strained to get a glimpse of what's behind the doors people are opening. I've seen crystal chandeliers and antiques for a second, until the doors close again. This book has allowed me to see beyond the doorsteps, into beautiful homes and courtyards, as if I'd been allowed a private tour. Whenever I need a "Big Easy" fix, I can settle into a cozy chair, light a fire in the fireplace, and read this book ... until my next trip back.

This is a wonderful book. It is rare to get the opportunity to see inside so many of these beautiful homes. McCaffety allows us not only to see inside the homes, but writes with a clarity the helps us understand where the beauty comes from. Anyone interested in this most historic neighborhood will want this book.

yes im the same mikko that wrote the foreword to the majesty of the french quarter and as i have the first say in kerri's magical book i think its right i put the first review online at amazon. every great artist has specific areas where they demonstrate great strength - for example sir john gielgud has great facility with the language of shakespeare that allows us to savor essences not available through simple reading; gabriel garcia marquez knows so well how to glide over encumbering details and fluff up the salient ones leaving us with a magical incarnation of a scene. make no doubt, with a camera, kerri mccaffety is a great artist. her particular strength lies in composing a shot that conveys layers of architectural import, luxury or lack of it, design elements and most startlingly, the livability of the secret insides of the french quarter's noblest domiciles. the portraits in this book don't just show the doors and windows and elegant bric-a-brac, they elicit the very aesthetic each resident decided to live with. so you'll not only see the empire furniture and faux marble fireplace but you'll see the family portrait and that one vase in the middle of the floor that screams the personality of the denizen. the french quarter has light still bouncing around in it from the days of jean lafitte, and mccaffety finds it in all its intraspectral glory. look at antoine's, the stately restaurant that has withstood the photographer's flash for most of the century and a half of its operation. in a natural light shot, kerri has found three layers of color that recalls one of the mardi gras concoctions over at pat o'briens - there is the warm light of the first floor, the greenish glow of the incandescents on the balcony and that ineluctable new orleans' sunset mauve on the rooftop. except for a couple of crowd scenes, there is not one car or person in the book so the reader feels like he or she is being taken on a personal tour of a preserved national treasure. with the recent spate of condo-mania in the vieux carre its anybody's guess how long the old line of residents can hold out, with kerri mccaffety's eye, at least we can hold close the unseen beauty our french quarter forever.

Although I have been to the French Quarter in New Orleans many times, I have never seen her look lovelier than in this gorgeous book by photographer Kerri McCaffety. Usually photographs don't quite capture the magic of the moment, but these still images seem to transcend their subjects.

The French Quarter is a study in contrasts: different architectural styles, various decorating techniques inside, exquisite gardens and fountains behind, and very little space anywhere. In many cases, the front of the building is by far the least interesting part . . . even though that's all that the tourists ever see. McCaffety takes you past the front door into the foyers, dining rooms, bedrooms, and gardens where the spirit of the French Quarter really reigns. No garden of orchids could ever match the color and variety of these many hidden sites. Never has so much happened in such a small area.

The photographs capture all of this in loving detail. The peeling paint and partially restored interiors often look better for Ms. McCaffety's treatment. Versailles could use her talents.

Not content with being a photographic genius, she also wrote essays for this magnificant volume that provide a sense of the place, people, and history. Although the facts were mostly all known to me, her enigma-explaining writing style and love of this place provided a poetry to the experience that mirrored the beauty of the photographs.

If you have to choose between a trip to New Orleans and reading this book, take the book! Wow!

You can also use this book to learn not to judge a place or a person by your initial impression. As this book shows, you cannot see the natural pearl until you open the oyster. Discard your incorrect views of New Orleans and replace them with these beauties.

Donald Mitchell

Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (available in September 2000) and The 2,000 Percent Solution

(donmitch@fastforward400.com)

Kerri McCaffety's lovely book provides locals and visitors alike the opportunity to glimpse the mystery and beauty behind the walls of the French Quarter. These beautiful homes reflect not only the talent of a wonderful photographer, but also the artistry, imagination and love of the homes' inhabitants. "The Majesty of the French Quarter" thoroughly captures the diverse styles and influences that make the homes in the French Quarter so exciting and unique. In fact, this diversity mirrors the many cultural influences that make the city of New Orleans a place like no other.

Ms. McCaffety's photographs display a very keen eye for detail; however, the same cannot be said of the accompanying text. In future editions, it would be wonderful if all owners' names were spelled correctly. Additionally, these beautiful homes deserve to be identified by their correct names. Although the numerous errors do not detract from the visual beauty of the book, "The Majesty of the French Quarter" would certainly be enhanced by the correction of these inaccuracies. The wonderful people who opened their homes to Kerri and to all readers deserve nothing less.

Having been raised in New Orleans over 40 years ago, it's thrilling to see a new perpsective of the beautiful "old haunts". Visitors to the French Quarter rarely ever glimpse the magnificent beauty to behold. This book guides the reader through a fabulous tour of private and public places, with a fresh vision of their intrigue. Kerri has really captured the visual magic and splendor which is so hard to describe; but, seeing is believeing! Exquisite gift to all, Kerri!

Very misleading...Interior is depicted on the box cover, yet there is not one interior photo in the set of cards. Would not have ordered these if I had known this.