The HRC promotes their shows in part with these larger than life
posters. There are smaller posters hung on nightstands nearby as well.
The Humanities Research Center at the UT Austin campus has one of the largest collections of photography in the world. It houses the Magnum Photo print archive which my friend Will and I did a video about ten years ago. It's the location where I first met Elliott Erwitt and then spent an afternoon with him in downtown Austin. It was my favorite place to take small groups of students to explore master works by 19th and 20th century photographers. On one visit there I ran into Arthur Meyerson. On another visit Magnum Photographer, Eli Reed. Suffice it to say that it is, in some ways, ground zero for art photography in our city. The core of the collection was contributed by photo historian, Helmut Gernsheim: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Gernsheim
I hadn't been to the galleries in a while but I noticed in an email that the ground floor gallery (the big one) was going to have a showing of Laura Wilson's portrait of writers and I knew I had to see this. Laura Wilson first landed on my photography radar back when Richard Avedon was working on his grand opus, "In the American West." Laura Wilson had been hired to help produce the photographs. Not as in produce the actual prints but as in: figure out the locations with the most potential, arrange the endless road trip travel with Avedon and his assistants. Help pull people/strangers into the project as subjects and so much more. She also documented the project, photographically, over the course of six years and...if that wasn't enough....she also wrote the text for Avedon's resulting book. There is a book she wrote and photographed for about Avedon's process and journey west that is, in itself, a very interesting look at how art gets made. My copy or her book is dog-eared. Re-read at least a dozen times. What I did not know at the time was how she was connected and that she was also a wonderful photographer in her own right.
Her specialty has always been portraiture. I was blown away when I looked at her bio here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Wilson_(photographer) Her book on the Hutterites of Montana was well received by the arts community and was probably one of the reasons she was hired for the Avedon project. But enough about Avedon. I'm here to praise Wilson's amazing work.
She's spent a large part of her career photographing internationally renown writers. Novelists, poets and playwrights. The work being shown at the HRC is all black and white (except for a small wall by way of a collage) and printed large.... and well. The space in the HRC is enormous and so each section of the show is well lit and well hung and viewers have ample space to step back and understand how expansive it is. When I walked into the gallery yesterday around 2 pm I was the only visitor. I had the whole show to myself. It was amazing and I felt privileged to see the work absolutely unencumbered by the presence of anyone else. Not even a guard or a docent.
Two interesting additions to the story. First, Wilson has some famous children. Luke, Owen and Andrew Wilson. Owen is one of my absolute favorite movie actors. He credits being constantly a subject for his mom's photography as a small child for his comfort now in front of movie cameras. ( loved him as "Hansel" in Ben Stiller's great movie: Zoolander).
A second addition to this story is a Six Degrees of Separation coincidence. I noticed on one of the placards next to an beautiful print of a Scottish writer Wilson mentioned that the writer cooked dinner for her and her photographic assistant. The assistant was a fellow named, Matt Lankes. He's a native Austinite and I have worked with him from time to time. He used to be one of the best of the best photo assistants before he moved on and became a very superb portrait photographer in his own right. He was the still photographer for Richard Linklater's movie, "Boyhood" and the stills from that movie are incredible.
Matt assisted me on the day I photographed former president, Bill Clinton for Dell, Inc. He's not only a great photographer but apparently an excellent soccer player as well. He reached out to let me know that he accompanied Laura Wilson on a large number of shoots the photos from which ended up in this show.
One can look at images on the web or in books but it is a completely different experience to see works printed exactly as the artist intended, in sizes big enough to make an impact and to allow deep exploration even by older audience members like me who need to look through the top part of my bifocals to see large prints in their entirety and then look through the bottoms of the glasses to see the detail. Yeah, I should try no line bifocals again.... sigh.
I suggest anyone interested in photography who lives within 100 miles of Austin to make a day trip of Laura Wilson's wonderful show. If you are flashy wealthy then by all means hop on that plane from wherever and comes see the show. It's pretty darn wonderful.
One of a half dozen long walls covered with portraits of writers.
Writer, Zadie Smith.
My favorites from the show are these images of Carlos Fuentes.
He is one of Mexico's greatest writers. I love that each artist is shown not only
in a formal portrait but also in his or her environment in a series of detail images.
The formal portrait of Fuentes is amazingly well done. (The little blue dot just
about his head in the forma portrait isn't part of the print; it's a reflection of a gallery light).
blog note:
I want to thank everyone for responding to my short, casual survey.
I love writing about photography. I just need to get better about ignoring
distractions and such. I'm certain I'm still having trouble dealing with the
trauma of the international pandemic which totally changed my art and business,
and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Next week I'll get around to worrying about the stock market....
I ask for your patience. I've been afflicted throughout adulthood with
acute anxiety and all of its attendant issues; one of which is being too reactive
to criticism. I'm working on it. That's all I can promise.
8 comments:
Looks like a fabulous show. Being neither flashy wealthy nor w/i 100 miles of Austin, I'll miss it, but I enjoyed your sneak peek.
I missed the window for yesterday's blog comments. I knew what I wanted to say, but then I read the comment by John Merlin Williams. He pretty much said what I would have, so I decided to think about it some more:
From my observations, and frequently stated by you, you love making portraits. But also, you seem to have an itch to write, and I believe that you would miss it as much as we would. For your consideration: don't allow comments. VSL is your podium. Repurpose the moderation time towards whatever does your soul the most good.
Thanks for the reminder of Laura Wilson. I can't make the show, but I see there's a book coming.
Referring back to the previous post, how about a portrait project of Austin area artists and creatives? Yes, it would be work, should be a rewarding kind of work.
impressive
This is why I read your blog; it's your blog, you blog if you want to. I mostly ignore your pictures first off and dive headfirst into the writing (that may be counter-intuitive for a photography blog). It's the subjects you choose, your descriptive prose, the passion you have for life, your in-depth knowledge of your subject that makes your blog so readable. Your photography is pretty damn good too. I wish I had the opportunity to visit this exhibition, but too far, too much hanging around in airports and I have learnt to hate flying. I get my kicks from long road trips.
Wonderful stuff. Thank you for sharing the experience of Laura Wilson's 'The Writers: Portraits' exhibition, and for introducing me to her work... I have just ordered the associated book.
Regarding the Leica SL System:
Based in part on your experiences I picked up a used SL and SL2. While I'm not giving up my Nikons, I find them a joy to use. Your comment about the focus distance display when manually focusing reminded me of my sense that they were designed by people who actually use cameras. I don't get that impression with other brands I've used.
Cor - that looks a great exhibition-and hooray! There's an accompanying photo book... Time to put an order in I reckon.
Mark
hmmm United says I can do a day trip from Denver for < $200. Tempting...
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