Authors Richard and Marina Campanella, husband and wife, began collecting old street scenes of New Orleans and rephotographing the sites as a hobby, one that quickly grew into the research for this, their first book. They live in a circa 1926 cottage tucked among azaleas and magnolias near the beach in Waveland, Mississippi. Campanella, a member of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, works in the field of satellite imaging and computer mapping at Stennis Space Center.