Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1405904
THE LEGACY OF TEXAS' GREAT PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER PAM FRANCIS — AND HER SERIES ON HOUSTON HIP-HOP STARS REDISCOVERED IN A DUSTY BOX AFTER HER DEATH — IS THE EXHIBITION OF THE FALL. W hen Texas Monthly still ruled the magazine racks in the 1990s, and its covers were greatly anticipated and widely scrutinized, it was Pam Francis who shot many of them, as well as the subjects on the pages inside. Her kingdom of portraiture — honed with a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with museum-exhibited street photographer Garry Winogrand — was expansive. She became known for forging iconic images in which she and her subject collaborated and conspired, producing unforgettable shots of often demanding subjects, such as President George H.W. Bush and President Barack Obama; Governor Ann Richards; Michael Dell; the MFAH's Peter Marzio; Dan Rather; Oscar Wyatt; Tilman Fertitta; Herb Kelleher (captured on the wing of a Southwest jet); and George Foreman, as well as outliers such as Dallas stripper Candy Barr. Then there were the creatives to whom Francis gravitated. She often turned to subjects who were in the music industry — especially two acts that had broken out of Texas to national acclaim, Lyle Lovett and ZZ Top. But, as her career segued into the late 1990s, she sensed a fresh energy, with new voices brewing. Around the turn of the millennium, this daughter of a Houston real estate dynasty — Joanne and Welcome Wilson Sr., although the fiercely independent Francis never traded on family connections — astutely picked up the resonant thunder coming BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON AND MATTHEW RAMIREZ. PORTRAITS INDRANI PAL-CHAUDHURI. ART DIRECTION MICHELLE AVIÑA. STYLIST DOUG VOISIN. PHOTO ASSISTANT GERARDO VELASQUEZ. PHOTOGRAPHED AT POST HOUSTON, ARCHITECTURE REM KOOLHAAS- FOUNDED OMA NEW YORK / JASON LONG. "THESE ARE SOME OF THE BEST PHOTOS THAT WE HAVE. WHEN I GO OVER AND LOOK BACK — THE CLARITY THAT YOU SEE ON THESE PHOTOS, THE DEFINITION, THE RESOLUTION — THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS, AND THEY DESERVE TO BE CELEBRATED. NOT JUST THE PHOTOS THAT PAM TOOK OF MYSELF, BUT EVERYONE ELSE'S PHOTOS." — Bun B Pam Francis' Bun B, 2001 78