Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1538826
A rtist Laura Wilson is the perfect talent to take on the ambiguous country that is America's southern neighbor, with the exhibition "Roaming M e x i c o , " t h e S M U Meadows Museum season-opener. A noted photographer with seven books to date (as well as mom to acting trio Andrew, Owen, and Luke), Wilson began her career as assistant to photographer Richard Avedon for his seminal "In the American West" portrait series, which shattered stereotypes as it forged remarkable images of the bold, brave, and hardscrabble people who inhabit a place of myth and lore. In the same way that America's West evokes deep emotions, so does the land of Mexico on Her Mind "Black-and-white photography is elemental and graphic and strong, and you're not distracted by color. But you can't go to Mexico and not respond to the color." By Catherine D. Anspon Photographer Laura Wilson's 40-year magnum opus at Meadows Museum uncovers complexities and layers of a beautiful and misunderstood land. Mexico. That's as true today as when Wilson ventured across the border to Nuevo Laredo and took her first photograph in 1985. Forty years and hundreds of images later, she has voyaged deep into the heart of her subject. These elements come together to convey an intricate, lush quilt — Mexico intuitively observed by a gringa who became an insider in deep, wordless communication with the people, intrinsic spirit, and rich and complex culture of a land both mythic and misunderstood. The Meadows exhibition, "Roaming Mexico: Laura Wilson," is paired with another take on the country, 20th-century lensman "Manuel Álvarez Bravo: Visions of Mexico." Shown alongside the great Bravo, Wilson brings the outsider's eye, yet one finds in both photographers the opposing qualities of surrealism and documentation, a hypnotic dance shared by each exhibition. Over Zoom this summer, PaperCity rang up Wilson for a Q&A from her Dallas studio. Catherine D. Anspon: We understand the late Meadows Museum director Mark Roglán was the catalyst for "Roaming Mexico." [Roglán passed away in 2021; Wilson dedicates the show and its book to his memory.] Laura Wilson: Mark was from Spain, and his mother is American. His father was Spanish. So, he naturally was interested in Mexico, living as he did here in Texas. I thought that perhaps the work I've been doing in Mexico might be of interest to the Meadows Museum. I showed him a brief collection of pictures that I had been working on. He immediately said, "Yes, we'll do it." You can imagine, for an artist to have a response that's positive and immediate is a great, great pleasure. One of Mark's many strengths was that he was decisive and sure of his eye and vision. Upon Mark's death, Dr. Amanda Dotseth took over this project. On the spark that started it all. I had been working on The Writers, a book published by Yale, as well as an [accompanying] exhibition of 150 photographs shown at the Ransom Center at The University of Texas. I had the time to look back through this Mexican material. I realized: I've been at this for 35 years. I hadn't up to that point thought about as a possible exhibition. I had been taking the pictures as I traveled — images that struck me as interesting or surprising or heartbreaking. Then I thought, 'What is it that I want to do as I go forward?' I realized that this is a big body of work that I need to concentrate on and edit and I need to talk with the designer, Greg Wakabayashi, in New York. He and I have worked together on a number of projects. So, with Mark's enthusiasm for the pictures, I went to Greg and said, "How can we structure a project, a book, an exhibition on Mexico." On the process. It was wonderful to work with Greg. What happens with a photographer — not just me — is that you tend to like the most recent pictures you took, and you are more impatient with the shortcomings of pictures you took 20 years ago. But that can be resolved with the help of a very good editor and someone who's thoughtful and knows photography. Greg not only knows photography, but he's the son of the famous photographer Hiro, and so he has been brought up with photography and making choices in the visual arts. — Laura Wilson Laura Wilson with Gabriel García Márquez, 2012 MATT LANKES (Continued)