Mark Andresen is a Louisiana artist and graphic designer displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He and his family left on the heels of the storm with a few possessions and their cats. What his wife Paula saved were his sketchbooks chronicling the people and places that make "The Crescent City" unique. The work found in "New Orleans: As It Was" include drawings and watercolors made between 1988 and 2005, each capturing the sweet vignettes, portraits and the famous architectural details representing the diverse stories and moods of his beloved city. Written and illustrated by Mark Andresen. Designed by Rudy VanderLans of Emigre. Author's introduction:

THIS BOOK IS NOT A EULOGY for the great city of New Orleans, even after Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed it. Instead it's a celebration of what was. Hopefully it is a faithful remembrance of a quintessentially American place that was living on borrowed time for years. An original among cities of the world. Fire, Plague and war have taken credit in the past for its demise, but each time it rose again with an attitude of joyful defiance in the sound of a lone trumpet above the rooftops. It is my hope that these fleeting sketches I drew of our city will add to the spark of rebirth that it deserves.