Photographer Akasha Rabut embraces New Orleans' elusive subcultures
Death Magick Abundance captures the spirit of this vibrant city of the American South through its people

Akasha Rabut - Photography
To look at Akasha Rabut’s first monograph, you’d be forgiven for expecting something other than a photobook inside, but its pink-fronted, star-marked cover is only half as curious as its name. Death Magick Abundance, published by Anthology Editions, refers to the photographer’s own understanding of New Orleans’ cycles of life: things die in order to bring others to life. Designed by local artist and tattooist, Pauly Lingerfelt, the cover itself suggests something of Haitian spell magic.
Whilst a pervasive image exists of New Orleans: its brass instruments, its parades with joy-stepping second lines and feather-strewn regalia, penetrating the city’s thick skin is a hard-done task. Rabut’s photobook took a decade to amass, by which point she’d been ‘invited in’, even to two of the city’s most elusive subcultures: urban cowboys and an all-female motorcycle riding club. Rabut works like a documentarian, guided by wabi-sabi principles as she embraces both the ruins and vibrance of New Orleans.
Montegut St., 2015. © Akasha Rabut from Death Magick Abundance, published by Anthology Editions
It started with a death. Lionel Batiste, of the Treme Brass Band, died in 2012. On this occasion, Rabut was invited to her first jazz funeral, a formative experience for the photographer, whose first wanders about the city were affronted by persistent Hurricane Katrina devastation. ‘There is still a thriving culture, there’s post-Katrina culture,’ Rabut explains.
I want people to want their photo taken as much as I want to take it
It is clear that the lens stands in for Rabut’s own person. Often, the people she captures look out through the image, at times with arms outspread to invite you in or with a single finger held to their lips, intimating a secret, all teased out by Rabut’s considered, ethnographic approach. ‘I work better when I feel connected to a place, when I have been able to build trust and relationships,’ she says. ‘I want people to want their photo taken as much as I want to take it. I often worry about being extractive and exploitative. [New Orleans] has been exploited enough’. The city’s residents encircle themselves in ritual culture, marked most evidently by second line traditions – itself an act of strength and persistence.
Hoffman Triangle, 2018. © Akasha Rabut from Death Magick Abundance, published by Anthology Editions
You could think of the book as ‘a day in the life of’ a New Orleanian, but only if you remember that it is a day only made possible by other difficult ones, a day that took ten years to bring about, presented to you in colour and print.
New Orleans Country Club, 2012. © Akasha Rabut from Death Magick Abundance, published by Anthology Editions
Central City, 2018 © Akasha Rabut from 'Death Magick Abundance' published by Anthology Editions
Central City, 2018 © Akasha Rabut from ’Death Magick Abundance’ published by Anthology Editions
Super Sunday, 2019 © Akasha Rabut from 'Death Magick Abundance' published by Anthology Editions
Claiborne Ave., 2016 © Akasha Rabut from 'Death Magick Abundance' published by Anthology Editions
Sharon ‘Ms. Colors’ Walker, 2015 © Akasha Rabut from 'Death Magick Abundance' published by Anthology Editions
INFORMATION
Death Magick Abundance, available from 24 March, published by Anthology Editions. anthology.net
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 shows
The Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to know
Designing the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
Premium patisserie Naya is Mayfair’s latest sweet spot
Heritage meets opulence at Naya bakery in Mayfair, London. With interiors by India Hicks and Anna Goulandris, the patisserie looks good enough to eat
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park
‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the church
The American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella Valley
Will Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any other
Gia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
-
‘American Photography’: centuries-spanning show reveals timely truths
At the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Europe’s first major survey of American photography reveals the contradictions and complexities that have long defined this world superpower
-
Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watch
Sundance Film Festival, which runs 23 January - 2 February, has long been considered a hub of cinematic innovation. These are the ones to watch from this year’s premieres
-
What is RedNote? Inside the social media app drawing American users ahead of the US TikTok ban
Downloads of the Chinese-owned platform have spiked as US users look for an alternative to TikTok, which faces a ban on national security grounds. What is Rednote, and what are the implications of its ascent?
-
Architecture and the new world: The Brutalist reframes the American dream
Brady Corbet’s third feature film, The Brutalist, demonstrates how violence is a building block for ideology