Tom Varisco recently published a new book, New Orleans Looking Up/New Orleans Looking Down. The book looks at the humor, resilience, strangeness, and charm that makes New Orleans so unique and memorable.
Varisco and fellow photographer Erik Winkowski split their focus in half — Looking Up and Looking Down — to better capture the many moods of their ever-changing yet strangely dependable home town. The photographers, along with writer John Biguenet, who contributed two essays, offer an irreverent celebration of one of America’s most intriguing destinations.
Varisco is sole proprietor and creative director of Tom Varisco Designs, a full service design/branding studio in New Orleans that has won several awards on the local, regional, and national levels. The studio has produced many short films and has received the first “Fellow Award” by the local chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts for design leadership and excellence.
Varisco teaches graphic design to seniors at Loyola University New Orleans. Two of his Hurricane Katrina photographs are in the permanent collection of New Orleans Museum of Art. He is the creator of Spoiled, a photo book about Hurricane Katrina refrigerator art; Signs of New Orleans, a brief record of the city’s “sign language;” and Jackson Squared, irreverent observations about the city’s most iconic landmark. New Orleans Looking Up / New Orleans Looking Down is a continuation of Varisco's exploration of the quirky, singular culture that is New Orleans.