New Orleans native John H. Lawrence is a photographer and curator and is Director of Museum Programs at the Historic New Orleans Collection, where he has worked for more than 45 years. . He has written and lectured widely about aspects of contemporary and historic photography and the administration and preservation of pictorial collections. He has served as principal or guest curator for dozens of exhibitions on photographic, artistic, and general historical topics.

"The photographs I make are concerned with the application of a vision, of an order, rother than the description of subject. The intention is to import o comprehension, not only of what the lens sees and the film records, but what the heart and the mind feel. They are analyses of subjects and synthesis of experiences and emotions, and therefore, reaffirmations of what already exists within."

In Fall 2013, the Arts Council of New Orleans honored him with a Community Arts Award for his work as a museum curator and photographic artist.