Meet Jeremy Cooker

Meet Jeremy Cooker

Jeremy Cooker (@nolafilm) fell in love with New Orleans sometime around 2 am on a Wednesday night a couple decades ago as music icon Walter Wolfman Washington was taking the stage for a second set in front of a packed crowd at the Maple Leaf Bar. The following 2 hours of guitar-driven, horn-filled New Orleans Rhythm and Blues & Funk complemented by the kind of impromptu camaraderie among total strangers that you can only find in New Orleans at 2 am on a Wednesday night, hooked him for life.

He moved to New Orleans in the early 90s after earning a journalism degree from Ole Miss, and landed a job with Mayor’s Office. There, the staff photographer, acclaimed documentarian Keith Calhoun, befriended and immersed him in the city’s culture and traditions, taking him inside homes of Mardi Gras indians and Social Aid and Pleasure Club members, and to the streets of Treme, the 6th Ward and 7th Ward to film jazz funerals and second lines.

He’s spent the past 16 years working with a variety of film and video projects as an assistant director and producer, as a hotel liaison and online marketer for the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp, and freelancing as an online strategist and consultant for various clients. He loves living in a city where chefs, musicians, artists and culture bearers are as approachable and friendly as they are revered and celebrated. And he’s grateful to be able to share as much of it as possible with his wife Mary (a native New Orleanian) and 4-year old son Nicolas (http://cookerboy.com).

Check out all of Jeremy’s posts on goNOLA.com.