albradenphoto's blog

The International Cultural Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock hosts an annual photographic exhibit exploring the lands and people of arid and semiarid regions. These include much of Texas, the Southwest and northern Mexico. This year’s exhibit was jurored by Roy Flukinger, Senior Research Curator at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. The Center is one of the leading photographic research facilities worldwide and – among many collections and archives – it has the Helmut and Alison Gerhsheim Collection and the First Photograph ever made.

Flukinger has been a curator at the Harry Ransom Center since 1977 – allowing him to work extensively with the Gernsheim Collection for a longer period than the collectors themselves. The resulting catalog of the current exhibition, Flukinger’s The Gernsheim Collection, published by UT Press in October does, in fact, weigh more than my new grandson Andrew. It represents a lifetime of study by Flukinger, demonstrating the depth of materials carefully collected by the Gernsheims from the 1940′s into the 1960′s as they researched and documented the history of photography.

For this eleventh annual High and Dry Exhibit, Flukinger selected, my triptych, Border Fence and Ditches, Fabens, TX. It is part of a portfolio of 15 triptychs showing the border at El Paso and Cd. Juarez. The entire portfolio is show on my website at albradenphoto.com/portfolios/rio_grande.php

Border Fence and Ditches, Fabens, TX

These triptychs are part of a large and ongoing project to photograph the Rio Grande / Rio Bravo in its entirety. Works from this series have been exhibited this year at the People’s Gallery, City Hall, Austin; the Texas Photographic Society Member’s Show, Baylor University, Waco; the Texas National 2010 Exhibit, Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches; the Houston Center for Photography Member’s Show, Houston; and the Texas Photographic Society International Exhibit at the A. Smith Gallery in Johnson City. Additional images from the Rio Grande / Rio Bravo project are at: albraden.photoshelter.com/gallery-list

The exhibit at Texas Tech University will include a reception on Friday, December 10, 2010 with Roy Flukinger.

Saturday, October 23rd saw the opening of Texas Photographic Society’s 19th International Photographic Exhibition. Hosted by Amanda Smith, of the A. Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas. Her gallery is part of an emerging art scene in this destination Hill Country town.

Amanda Smith, left, greets visitors to her gallery in Johnson City, Texas.

The exhibit was curated by Katherine Ware, Curator of the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe. She selected the show from over 1,200 works submitted by 184 photographers. Texas Photographic Society has 1223 members – at last count – from 48 states and nine countries. Headquartered in San Antonio, it mounts major exhibits during the year and has an extensive list of seminars held each fall in Austin covering many topics in photography. For more information, go to www.texasphoto.org.

Two of my El Paso Border Triptychs were selected for the show and awarded Third Prize. The include Border Fence and Ditches, Fabens, TX and Boundary of New Mexico, Texas and Chihuahua. Works from this portfolio have been exhibited this year at The People’s Gallery, City Hall, Austin, TX; The Texas National 2010 Exhibit at Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, TX; Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX; The Texas Photographic Society Member’s Show, Baylor University, Waco, TX; The High and Dry Show; Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX and were awarded the Emerging Artist Award of the Texas Photographic Society in July of 2010.

The full series of 15 triptychs on the border fence at El Paso/Cd. Juarez is part of a larger project entitled Rio Grande / Rio Bravo / Rio Conflict examining the historic and ongoing conflicts around this iconic river of the Southwest.

Al Braden in front of 3rd Prize triptychs on The Border at El Paso/Cd. Juarez.

The entire portfolio can be seen at my website: www.albradenphoto.com/portfolios/rio_grande.php

A. Smith Gallery in the Hill Country at Johnson City, Texas.

Two of my border fence series from El Paso/Cd. Juarez were selected for the Texas Photographic Society exhibit to open October 23, 2010 at the A. Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas.

Juror Katherine Ware chose the work from among 1,206 images submitted by 184 photographers – always a challenging task. She remarked after the selection that she found a lot of Powers of Two among the works presented. Ms. Ware is now Curator of Photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe. She had previously worked with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Oakland Museum. Most recently, she was Curator of Photography at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and worked to collect the works of current artists. Her published articles have presented contemporary photography, Bauhaus photography and the work of Harry Callahan, Julien Levy, L. Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray.

The exhibit opens October 23 at the A. Smith Gallery – a new gallery dedicated to fine photography – in Johnson City, Texas and will continue until November 17th.

Broder Fence and Ditches, Fabens, TX received 3rd Place in the Texas Photographic Society 19th International Competition

Boundary of New Mexico, Texas and Chihuahua compliments the fences image with images of the Rio Grande / Rio Bravo and the stone marked boundary at the base of Mt. Christo Rey in Sunland, New Mexico.

These two triptychs are selected from a series of fifteen created at the end of 2009 in El Paso, Texas showing juxtaposed images of the natural border and the various configurations of border fence separating El Paso and Cd. Juarez, Mexico. The contrast is stark between the two cities in the current state of armed drug battles in Juarez and the relative safety and prosperity of El Paso. Estimates suggest that perhaps 400,000 people have fled Juarez in the past couple years of violence. These images are part of a larger on-going project to photograph the entire Rio Grande / Rio Bravo and explore historic and current conflicts along this legendary river.

The entire portfilio may be viewed on my PhotoShelter archieve at: http://albraden.photoshelter.com/gallery/El-Paso-Border-Triptychs/G0000VinztvFQldM/P0000IQEePEbgAvE

This work was recently selected by the Texas Photographic Society at the emerging artist portfolio for July 2010 and images from the series have been exhibited at People’s Gallery in Austin City Hall; Texas National 2010 Exhibit at Stephen F. Austin University, Nacoghoches, Texas; Houston Center for Photography and the Texas Photographic Society Member’s Show in Waco, Texas.

Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University hosted the 24th Annual Member's Show for the Texas Photographic Society.

Among the works in the show is a triptych by Austin based environmental and cultural photographer Al Braden. According to Braden, “The triptych form allows me to amplify the story either by multiple viewpoints of the same object, or in this case by multiple facets of the reality of the present border between El Paso and Cd. Juarez, Mexico. This triptych juxtaposes a painting of historic Aztec culture from the Chamizal National Monument with the plaque from the International Boundary Commission survey following the Treaty of 1848 and the fence symbolizing the present reality on the border.”

El Paso Border Triptych #1, Chamizal Mural and Boundary at El Paso/Juarez.

This triptych is part of a recent series of 15 showing the border at El Paso/Juarez, both in the border fence and in natural areas of the Lower Valley of El Paso del Norte. It is part of a larger project by Al Braden to image the Rio Grande / Rio Bravo in contemporary terms. The entire series is shown in a gallery entitled El Paso Border Triptychs and is archived on PhotoShelter at this link: albraden.photoshelter.com/gallery/El-Paso-Border-Triptychs/G0000VinztvFQldM/

The Texas Photographic Society 24th Annual Members Show will open June 8th at the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Sixty three images from sixty three photographic artists were chosen from a field of 1,185 submissions by 185 artists. The jurors included Dr. Clark Baker, Susan Mullally and Susan Dunkerley Maguire of Baylor University. The opening reception will be from 5 to 7 pm on June 10th and the show will continue until July 10th. The museum is located at 60 Baylor Ave., Waco, TX 76706. For more information on the exhibit, www.baylor.edu/martinmuseum.

Al Braden’s photograph is part of an series of triptychs of the El Paso/cd. Juarez border area focusing on the border fence and the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo. Other works in this series have been exhibited in the People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall, the Texas National 2010 Art Exhibit at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, TX, jurored by internationally acclaimed artist Judy Pfaff and in the upcoming Houston Center of Photography Members Show opening July 9th in Houston.

El Paso Triptych 1 - Chamizal Mural and Boundry at El Paso/Juarez by Al Braden.

This work attempts to contrast the ideals of trans-border cooperation between the United States and Mexico as exemplified in the Chamizal settlement and National Memorial and the harsh realities of the real border. The Aztec dancer is a small section of an 18 x 120 foot mural painted on the walls of the Chamizal National Memorial by artist Carlos Flores in 1992 titled “Nuestra Herencia” or “Our Heritage”.

The mural in its vast scope details the peoples and cultures of Mexico and ends with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Aldofo Lopez Mateos resolving the Chamizal dispute in the El Paso del Norte Valley and pledging bilateral cooperation. The treaty was concluded by President Lyndon B. Johnson after the assassination of President Kennedy.

A section of conventional chain link border fence lines the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo along Paisano Drive in El Paso. It is only one of the many fence styles in the area. Frame three is a boundary marker from the original survey. Taken together is the clash of ideals and the reality that separates our two people’s who’s heritage dates back to the Spanish conquest.

This work is part of a larger project to image the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo in contemporary terms along its entire 1800+ mile length from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to the river’s mouth at Boca Chica on the Gulf of Mexico. Many initial images are available for viewing and licensing on Al Braden’s stock site which is powered by PhotoSelter and linked to his website, www.albradenphoto.com. To connect directly to the archive galleries, go to www.photoshelter.com/c/albraden/search?|_DSC=&x=38&y=11&|_DSC_AND=t&_ACT=search. Al Braden is an environmental and outdoor photographer working in Austin, Texas.