Raw Sugar: Harvest in Black and White

The West Baton Rouge Museum presents a new exhibition entitled Raw Sugar: Harvest in Black and White featuring the photography of Lakeland, Louisiana native Julie Stewart. The exhibit, which runs September 2 through December 31, 2017, features a series of photographs of Alma Plantation, Louisiana’s last complete plantation-sugar mill complex. This collection of photographs showcases the plantation’s process of harvesting sugarcane from the field, to the milling process at the factory, and then to the sugar house which holds the raw sugar before it is taken to the refinery.

Shooting mostly in black and white, Stewart’s work puts the sugarcane plantation in dramatic focus. Her photographs allow the viewer an intimate inside look at Alma and its important contribution to Louisiana’s sugar industry. Generations of the Stewart family have kept excellent records of their family’s business in both word and photograph. Although Julie grew up at Alma, she did not become serious about photography until she returned home in 2008 after a decade of living elsewhere. Julie sees her work as continuing her family’s tradition of documentation. She is making sure there is no gap in Alma history from her generation.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website