Jesse D Poole, Natchitoches, LA (2026)

09/10/2026

I have a few one-off’s or artist proofs left from earlier this spring or Christmas last year.

If this is something that might interest you. Shoot me a message. These are available now and will not be printed again!

All are 8x12’s with 2in border.
—

09/10/2026

Spent some time walking the banks of the Sabine River today.

I've driven over it more times than I could count. Photographed Toledo Bend. Stood on both sides of it.

But I'd been wanting to actually get down here for a while.
So today, with the water low, I did.
It was hot as hell...

And somewhere between climbing over rocks, sweating through my clothes, sliding through slick mud, eating a few of those lovely love bugs that were plentiful today, and wondering why I voluntarily do this s**t, I started thinking about what I was actually looking at.

Louisiana is on one side of this photograph.
Texas is on the other.
The state line runs right through the middle of the river.

Turns out, people have been arguing about where that line belongs for a couple hundred years.

After the Louisiana Purchase, Spain and the United States couldn't agree on exactly where one country ended and the other began. For a while, this whole region existed alongside a strange piece of disputed country called the Neutral Ground.

Eventually the Sabine became part of the international boundary between the United States and Spanish Texas.

Then Mexico.
Then the Republic of Texas.
Then just...Texas.

Humans really like drawing lines, but here's the part I find interesting.

After spending so much of its history dividing two places, the Sabine eventually became something they had to share. Texas and Louisiana worked together to dam the river in the 1960s.

The result was Toledo Bend.

Nearly 186,000 acres of water stretching between the two states. Something so damn big that today most of us around here probably think of Toledo Bend before we ever think about the river that made it possible.

But standing down here today, with the water low enough to walk along the rocks, you can still see the thing underneath all of it.

The Sabine.

Before the lake.
Before the dam.
Before somebody drew a line on a map and decided one bank belonged to one place and the other belonged somewhere else.

There was just a river moving south.
And there still is.
—

Shot on Canon USA

09/08/2026

Another one from Christmas in Natchitoches just last year on the 99th.

I've spent a lot of time photographing Festival Season in this town, and somewhere in that archive are pieces of the story that will eventually find their way into THE 100TH.

But most of this book still hasn't been photographed yet.
That's the part I'm looking forward to.

The 100th Christmas season is coming, the cameras are ready, and y'all have already claimed more than half of the entire edition.

Fewer than 45 preorder copies remain.
That's it.

100 years.
100 books.
One edition.

When the last one is claimed, THE 100TH is sold out.
There will not be another printing.

To everyone who's already put their name on one before I've even finished making it—thank you.

Now I just have to go make the thing.

THE 100TH: A Photographic Record of the 2026 Natchitoches Christmas Season

Preorders are open now: https://www.jessedpoole.com/the-100th
—

09/07/2026

Wrapping up an evening on Cane River is always a damn good way to end the day.

It’s easy to understand the affinity people have for this little historic town when you see it from out here.

Time slows down. The world gets a little quieter, and somehow, all the noise waiting back on land seems a little less important when you can no longer access it by road.

I guess that’s one of the reasons I’ve always loved exploring places off the beaten path.

Sometimes you just need to put a little water, a dirt road, or a few miles between yourself and everything else.

Y’all enjoy the evening.
—

Shot on Canon USA

09/04/2026

Just a few days ago on the Texas side of Toledo Bend, looking back toward Louisiana.

It got dark for a few minutes out over the water.
Not nighttime dark.
Storm dark when whole landscape seems to hold still and wait to see what happens next.

I love when the world does that.

P.S. Who’s been to the little recreational area the Sabine River Authority of Texas has built just on the other side of Toledo Bend?

It’s pretty damn awesome.
—

Shot on Canon

09/03/2026

This started as an idea.
Honestly, barely even that.

I threw it out there to see if anybody else thought it was worth doing.

Then the comments started.

And somewhere between "maybe I should make a book" and more than a hundred people telling me "make the damn thing," an idea turned into a project.

Then the project turned into something else.
A community started forming around it.

People willing to put their name on something that doesn't even exist yet.

People trusting me to spend this Christmas season with a camera in my hand and make something worth keeping when it's over.

That's a pretty damn cool feeling.
And now—
Nearly half of the entire edition.
Gone.

That's it.

There will be 100 signed and individually numbered copies of THE 100TH.

Not 100 now and another batch later.
Not a second printing when these disappear.

One hundred books. Period.

When #100 is claimed, this book is sold out.
Forever.
And I want that to matter.

Because THE 100TH isn't supposed to be something sitting in inventory five years from now.

It's a record of ONE Festival year.
One season. One hundred years of celebrations.
A finite moment in the history of this town.

I'm going to spend the 2026 Christmas season documenting the spectacle, sure—but also everything happening around it.

The people.
The preparation.
The history.
The traditions.
The crowds and the empty streets.
The fireworks and what happens before the fuse is lit.

The photographs everybody expects.
And hopefully a hell of a lot nobody expects.

Then when it's over, I'll take all of that—along with my own Christmas archive and pieces of the history that brought us here—and make THE 100TH.

There's something else I didn't anticipate when this started:

The people preordering this aren't just buying the finished thing.
You're becoming part of the reason it gets made.
To every one of you who has put your name on a copy before I've even made the photographs—THNAK YOU!

Now we've got a book to make.
And for everybody who said they wanted one but hasn't claimed theirs yet...

I wouldn't wait too long.

THE 100TH: A Photographic Record of the 2026 Natchitoches Christmas Festival Season

100 years. 100 books. One edition.

Preorders are open now.
—

https://www.jessedpoole.com/the-100th

—
Shot on Canon USA
24mm, f/11, 3.2sec, ISO 100

09/01/2026

Well... Y'all did it.

I threw an idea out there...

Since then, more than 100 of you have commented, replied, messaged me directly, found me on other platforms, and some of y'all even texted my personal cell phone to tell me the same thing: make the book.

Alright.
I'm making the book.

THE 100TH: A Photographic Record of the 2026 Annual Natchitoches Christmas Festival Season

And the preorder is officially open.

For years, I've photographed Christmas in Natchitoches, but this year I'm going after something bigger than another collection of pretty Christmas photographs.

I want to document the 100th.

The history. The traditions.
The people hanging the lights.
The vendors opening their windows.
The families arriving.
The crowds. The quiet. The weather.
The people behind the scenes.
The fireworks before they're fireworks.
The smoke hanging over Cane River afterward.
The things everybody photographs—and the s**t happening just outside the postcard that most people never see.

And here's the part I love:
Most of this book doesn't exist yet.

You're preordering the work I'm about to spend this entire Christmas season making.

I'll photograph the 100th as it unfolds, dig through my own Christmas archive, research the history, find pieces of the past, and after the last fireworks explode and the lights finally go dark, I'll sit down with all of it and build the finished book.

And I'm keeping the First Edition simple:

100 YEARS.
100 BOOKS.

Every First Edition copy will be signed and individually numbered.

85 — FIRST EDITION — $100

The signed and numbered book.

10 — PRINT EDITIONS — $150

The book plus a signed 8×12 fine art print selected from the work I make documenting the 100th.

Only ten of these print packages will exist.

5 — COLLECTOR'S EDITIONS — $250

The book plus a signed and individually numbered 12×18 limited-edition fine art print from the project.

Only five of these are available.

And those 15 prints are something I'm especially excited about:

I haven't made the photographs yet.

Those images will come out of this season. When they're selected, those specific print editions will belong to these original preorder packages.

They will not be reproduced in those editions again. Ever.

No second batch.
No restock.
When they're gone, they're gone.

The exact details of THE 100TH will continue to develop as I work through the season—because I want the photographs and the story to determine what this book becomes.

There may be other prints and other things that come out of this project later, but these first 15 print editions belong to the beginning.

More than 100 of you told me to make this thing.
Now, I need every one of you...
The preorder is open.
Y'all wanted me to make it happen. Let's go!!!

THE 100TH
100 Years. 100 First Edition Books.

—
https://www.jessedpoole.com/the-100th

08/31/2026

For years, I’ve photographed Christmas in Natchitoches.

I’ve stood on rooftops. Along the river. In the middle of crowds. Behind barricades. In the cold, the rain, and a few December nights that had absolutely no business being 90 degrees.

I’ve photographed a lot of fireworks.

But this year, I don’t want to make another Christmas photograph.

I want to make a record of the 100th.
And I have an idea...
THE 100TH

A photographic book documenting the 100th Natchitoches Christmas season.

Not a greatest-hits collection of pretty pictures and Christmas lights.

I want the history sure, pieces from my own archive over the last years spent downtown... (might even see if I can convince Corey to jump into this as a co-author and photographer?)

But mostly, I want this year.

The people hanging the lights before anybody shows up.
The vendors opening their windows.
The families claiming their spot along the river.
The kids seeing it for the first time.
The people who have been coming here long enough to remember when all of this looked completely different.

The crowds. The exhaustion. The rain. The cold.

The smoke hanging over the Cane River after the fireworks are finished and everybody starts walking back across the bridges home.

What usually happens just outside the postcard.

Because somewhere in all of that is what the 100th actually looks like. I haven't photographed it yet...

That's the point.

I want to document the entire 2026 Christmas season as it happens. Then, when the last fireworks have exploded, the barricades disappear and the lights finally go dark, I'll sit down with everything I've made and build the book.

But I'm thinking about doing this one differently.

I think I'm going to let y'all decide whether this book gets made.

No giant print run. No boxes of books sitting around hoping somebody eventually buys one.

I want to completely presell the first edition.

If enough people want THE 100TH to exist, I'll open a presale for 100 signed and numbered copies—and those preorders will fund the production of the book.

Then I'll spend this season making the thing we've all agreed should exist.

So right now, I'm not asking anybody to buy anything.

I'm asking who wants to see me make it.

If I put the presale page up, and you'd genuinely put your name on one of those 100 copies, tell me in the comments.

Because twenty years from now, when the 120th rolls around and this town looks different again, I'd like there to be 100 books sitting on shelves somewhere that remember exactly what this year looked like.

THE 100TH
A Photographic Record of the Natchitoches Christmas Season

So...
Should I make the book?
—

Edit: The preorder is open:
https://www.jessedpoole.com/the-100th

Thanks for your support!!

Front Street - December 5th, 2023
10 sec. - f/11 - ISO 200

08/31/2026

Nothing monumental happened here.

…at least, not while I was standing there.

No beautiful sunset.
No dramatic light. Maybe a little.
Nobody interesting walked into the frame.

Just an old folding chair beneath a boarded-up window, surrounded by broken glass.

That was it.

And that’s precisely why I photographed it.

I think we’ve gotten a little too accustomed to believing something has to be extraordinary before it deserves our attention.

The landmark.
The perfect light.
The famous view.

Meanwhile, most of the world exists somewhere between those things.

It’s old buildings along a two-lane highway in Melrose, Louisiana. A chair somebody left behind. Plywood over a window. Grass slowly reclaiming the edges.

Ordinary evidence that people were here.

That life happened here.

Maybe nothing important enough to make the history books. Nothing anyone thought needed to be preserved. Probably nothing most people would even pull over for.

But photography has never only been about documenting the extraordinary.

Sometimes it’s simply about saying:

I saw this.

For whatever reason, on this particular day, it made me stop.

So I did.

And I think that’s enough.
Melrose, Louisiana.
—

Shot on Canon USA

08/31/2026

Bricks streets in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Jesse D Poole

09/10/2026

09/10/2026

09/08/2026

09/07/2026

09/04/2026

09/03/2026

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