Black Star Motorcycle with Green Doors on Ursulines Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana
Cityscape photograph of a black motorcycle in front of a 19th-century building on Ursulines Avenue in New Orleans. The street was named for the Catholic order of Ursuline Sisters who arrived in New Orleans in 1727 and had a significant impact on the development city The three green doors are a reference to the Christian Trinity which was critical to the order’s theological worldview. Shadows frame and stabilize the black motorcycle in the image’s rectilinear composition integrating it within the architecture of the building, and thereby developing a sense of historical continuity from the early 18th century to the present. Striking green and burnt sienna colors in the background of the picture form a counterpoint to blacks and chromes of the motorcycle. Even though the bike is part of the historical process of New Orleans, symbolized by geometric harmonies, it is yet of a notably different character as demonstrated by chromatic contrasts.