225BatonRouge.com

William Greiner is following his father’s advice—“Bloom where you are planted.”

The New Orleans native and acclaimed photographer is making Baton Rouge home after Hurricane Katrina uprooted his family. “Having lived in the city (New Orleans) most of my adult life, never in my wildest dreams did I envision myself living permanently in Baton Rouge,” he says.

An emotional rollercoaster ride led to his change of heart. “Anger, frustration and bewilderment gave way to confusion, disorientation, then resignation, and finally acceptance,” Greiner says. He has embraced his new home and has a new collection of photographs entitled Baton Rouge Blues.

Photographs in the Baton Rouge Blues collection just finished stints in Alabama and Maine and were part of a group show at Do Not Bend Gallery in Dallas that closed May 5.

The photographs, in conjunction with an Internet blog Greiner has maintained since October 2005, have served as an avenue for the artist to vent his frustrations about the storm. “The marriage of words and pictures has been really liberating for me,” he says.

“Whether the photographs exemplify the reasons and circumstances of their making is far less important than the process and product that got me through this almost unimaginable experience.”

williamgreiner.com.