This SIGNED & framed photo, entitled "Big Chief Walter Cook - Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians, 2015" by Erika Goldring, is signed by Big Chief Walter Cook and the artist. Measures 16" x 20".

About the Artist: from http://www.erikagoldring.com/bio.html

New Orleans-based fine art music photographer Erika Molleck Goldring has developed her own unique style of performance portraiture. Her character-driven portfolio features such celebrated acts as Beyoncé, Fats Domino, B.B. King and Willie Nelson, as well as breaking new acts in genres as divergent as jam, jazz, blues, reggae, blue grass and alt-country.

Erika captures the energy in a live show—whether it’s the split second a beautiful stage light falls on her subject or the raw emotion emanating from the performer lost in the groove.  Simplicity and balance prevail in Erika’s images.  By eliminating all suggestion of environment, her work speaks of the sounds, vibrations and rhythmic idiosyncrasies distinct to each performer.

But for Erika the show doesn’t stop there.  Her technical talents are equally impressive in the darkroom.  All of her B/W images are purposefully printed on Bergger paper, a fiber-based gelatin silver paper of exceptional quality, and are toned for an archival finish.  Erika’s color images are printed using pigment inks on Hahnemuhle paper, a museum quality 100% cotton rag photo paper.

Erika has studied at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Art under the tutelage of critically acclaimed photographers Victoria Ryan and Richard Sexton.  Her work is featured in a number of music publications and newspapers, including Rolling Stone, Mojo, DownBeat, and OffBeat, as well as the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, and Times-Picayune newspapers.  Additionally, she is the house photographer at the legendary Tipitina’s and UNO Lakefront Arena.  Most recently, Erika has had works accepted into the Smithsonian’s Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

About the Creole Wild West Tribe: from http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2011/03/creole_wild_west_big_chief_coo.html

Their Creole Wild West is the city's oldest tribe, dating to the mid-1800s, and perhaps its most influential. Even the late great Tootie Montana, the 7th Ward innovator of 3-D style suits, had roots in the Creole Wild West.

"The Creole Wild West is the oldest, the largest. And let's add a third description: most consistent, in their suits and as leaders," said longtime Indian representative Bertrand Butler.

The chiefs would add one more. "We'd like to think we're the prettiest," they said, preparing for tomorrow's competition, in which Indians strive to be prettier than others through combinations of elaborate beadwork patches, stones, plumes and feathers that can weigh 150 pounds and cost thousands of dollars.