On Thursday, July 8, architect/photographer Robert Coppola gave an illustrated talk in the Hill Memorial Library lecture hall about his recent work.

Special Collections holds a small portfolio of his work entitled Fire Hydrants of the French Quarter, which he published in 2002. Post-Katrina, he donated a second portfolio of photographs entitled Window on New Orleans. His visit to Baton Rouge is part of a working trip he’s making to document what has happened along the Gulf Coast five years after Katrina – and of course now there’s a new disaster to document.

Coppola’s past work often reflects his background in architecture, centering on buildings and streetscapes, as in the New Orleans portfolios, as well as fishing boats in New England harbors. But in recent years he has focused more closely on people. In 2009, his solo show at the Massachusetts College of Art titled “Sacred Ground” focused on people’s interactions with war memorials and the loss embodied in those memorials. In February 2010, he exhibited a portfolio on the lives of migrant farm workers.

Coppola holds a B. Architecture from Catholic University, Washington, D.C. and an M.A. from Cornell University. He teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA. His work is held in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library, and numerous private collections.