Global InformationGreg Guirard information
Greg Guirard | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 19, 1937 Southwest Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | June 2, 2017 (aged 80) Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | photographer |
| Known for | Atchafalaya Autumn Cajun Families of the Atchafalaya: Their ways and Words Seasons of Light |
| Website | www |
Greg Guirard (1937–2017) was a photographer and nature writer on the Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin and Cajun culture. His works were focused on the Atchafalaya landscape, its flora and fauna, and its human population. His life and works were dedicated to nature preservation, inspired by other prominent environmentalists such as Thoreau or John Muir.
Besides his works as photographer and writer, Guirard was also an English teacher, tour guide through the Atchafalaya Basin, Cajun speech coach for actors, farmer and cypress furniture maker.[1] He reused cypress logs dragged from the swamps and dedicated himself to reforest formerly deforested cypress lands by planting more than 50.000 trees throughout his entire life.[2] He was an active supporter of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the ecosystems within the Atchafalaya Basin.[3]
Following Thoreau's example, he dedicated himself to pursue a simpler way of living, and his personal Walden was the Atchafalaya Basin where he lived in a riverboat house.[4] Some[who?] attribute LSU's 1958 championship in football to the speech he gave to the team.
- ^ Article by John H Lawrence.
- ^ Documentary about a Cajun ecologist, photographer, and fisherman who lives in the Atchafalaya Basin.
- ^ Kris Wartelle article at The Advertiser.
- ^ Rheta Grimsley Johnson: Sinker cypress and causes.