ARTIST STATEMENT

By Carolyn Brown Photographer

September 2010

One year ago I began working with art historian John Lunsford on Dialogues: Where Iberia and the New World Meet, a series of architectural analogies from the New World and Old World Spain, Mexico and Portugal.

The series expresses my interpretation of these many rich destinations of culture, architecture and art, including overall and detail views, from some of the most important places in the world.  Some of the photographs were taken in 1989, and all prior to 2005. 

My early work deals with architecture and culture, especially the imagery from Middle Eastern ancient sites.    This work reflects my admiration of early 19^th--century European photographers-- those who photographed ancient places before it was easy to travel, using huge cameras and cumbersome black and white chemical processes, carried across the empty Sahara sands with the assistance of a donkey.  Although imagery from Egypt and many other Middle East locales were dramatic and monochromatic, nearly without bright color, my interpretive vision was set during the time I made these images  in the early 1970’s.

Later in life when I came to live in the Southwest, I began photographing sacred Mexican and Central American sites, both pre-Hispanic and viceregal.  I responded to the rich color, the intimacy, and intensity of these places, and after ten years, had put together--with the cooperation of many--a body of work that became possibly the largest photographic exhibition in the world, Sacred Space: Man and the Divine in Mexico, Guatemala and Southwestern United States.  

Perhaps the outstanding work from the photographer’s lens evolves from those places and objects known best-- subjects found in one’s own back yard.  Photographs of Dallas have given back much more than I could have dreamed. In late 2004, I published my third book on Dallas, Dallas Where Dreams Come True, with writer Jim Donovan.  This work has become part of numerous corporate permanent collections, and is exhibited often.  It has resulted in projects I could never have imagined.

It is with great pleasure that right here in Dallas, Texas, we can participate in the bicentennial celebration of Latin America and Mexico, celebrating 200 years of independence from Spain and Portugal--often referred to as the “Year of the Nation” “El Año de la Patria”.  It is an honor to exhibit photographs from many of the most significant places in the world. 

Carolyn Brown