We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Wilson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
In my career as a photographer / cinematographer, I’ve worked on several meaningful projects. In fact, I complete one every 3-5 years or so. Most have been long-term photographic documentaries, telling the story of specific communities. One of my early projects was about a small East Texas town of Jasper, in the aftermath of a terrible hate crime, and another was about my extended family in Cajun Louisiana. Following that, I was the prom night photographer at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired for ten years, which had shows in New York and China. During COVID, I photographed essential women workers of Austin and wheat-pasted the portraits on the sides of buildings around town. I also work as a cinematographer and producer on documentary films alongside my husband, director Keith Maitland. Our most successful film was about the first mass school shooting in America, at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966.
My current project is perhaps my most personal one. For over ten years, I’ve been exploring my grandfather’s life’s work as a paleontologist. Before he died, he gave me three black metal boxes filled with faded Kodachromes. The images featured geologic charts, rock formations, bone fragments and skulls, and landscapes from his annual digs in West Texas and Big Bend National Park. These were his teaching slides from when he was a professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Texas. Holding them up to the light, I realized that he and I had photographed some of the exact same desert landscapes, from the same vantage points, only fifty years apart. This shared connection ignited an adventure and a long-term project featured in the pages of my first book, DIG: NOTES ON FIELD AND FAMILY.
I now join paleontologists on digs every winter in the Big Bend area, searching for bones and photographing the same stark desert landscapes featured in those vintage 35mm transparencies. But my work is not just an homage to my grandfather. I have been creating conceptual self-portraits in the style of geology and anatomy charts, combining the personal and the scientific. These annual digs are a pilgrimage to an origin story that reaches beyond traceable generations. Each bone I collect is evidence of the slow, significant work of evolution, serving as a bracing reminder that we, as humans, sit at the very end of that timeline.
Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I knew I wanted to be a photographer as far back as my high school years, which drew me to attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for my bachelor’s degree in photography and imaging. In New York, I worked as an intern and an assistant to several amazing photographers. I think back on this time as an absolutely crucial period of my development. I would definitely recommend assisting or interning for anyone starting out in the business. A couple of years after graduation, I completed a long-term documentary project about a hate crime in East Texas (Jasper, Texas: The Healing of a Community in Crisis) and I showed the work to the art department at TEXAS MONTHLY MAGAZINE. They responded well to the project and started hiring me for freelance assignments. Things started snow-balling from there. Over the years I have worked for the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, TIME, PEOPLE, THE ATLANTIC, BUSINESSWEEK, MOTHER JONES, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BRAND STORIES, HGTV, THE COOKING CHANNEL, VARIETY and many more. Everyday is different for me, every job is different.
The industry has changed so much since I got started. As a freelance photographer, I’ve learned to be flexible and adaptive while still staying true to myself. It’s not always easy to navigate, but I’ve continued to balance assignment work with personal work. And with the DIG project, I’ve had the opportunity to exhibit at several galleries here in Texas. The fine art presentations of the stark desert landscapes have sold well, leading me to yet another path within my photography career.
Recently, I started a business called Homestead Photographs, working with clients that have a family ranch or a beloved family home. I document the landscape, the people, the animals, and sacred objects. Multiple days of comprehensive, collaborative on-site photography results in an exquisite handmade fine art photography book— an heirloom.
I never really know what’s on the horizon, but I do know that my work is constantly evolving. Sometimes having the patience for the ebbs and flows of the full arc of an artistic career can be challenging, but for me, I believe the journey is truly worth it.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
As a self-employed photographer. I often take my work home with me, working at strange hours, into the night, in my dreams, over the weekend. I rarely clock out at 5pm. At times, I wish I could call it a day and clear my head of it all, but being a photographer is a huge part of my identity, my ego. I’ve been working to compartmentalize things a bit, especially now that I have a kid. I’ve also gotta find time to just be a mom, a friend, a sister, and a partner.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being an artist, whether it’s your source of income or something you do for love is extremely rewarding. It opens you up to realms of consciousness and an appreciation of the world that not everyone knows how to access. Photography has been my passport, my reason to meet people I never would have met otherwise and travel to places I never would have gone. This career has been a huge adventure.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sarahwilsonphotography.com , www.homesteadphotographs.com, www.go-valley.com
- Instagram: @swilsonfoto
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahwilsonfoto
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/sarah-wilson-41474969
- Other: Purchase a copy of DIG: Notes on Field and Family: https://www.sarahwilsonphotography.com/purchase-dig-book
Image Credits
In upload order, but not necessarily important to be in that order:
1. Citrus Queen of Mission Texas- shot for Texas Monthly magazine
2. BLIND PROM, formal portrait
3. “DIG: Notes on Field and Family”, book published in 2022 by Yoffy Press
4. VARIETY magazine cover featuring Chip and Joanna Gaines of Waco, Texas
5. “Jasper, Texas: Healing of a Community in Crisis” – “Scene of the Crime”, and “Bill King on Death Row”
6. DIG show installation photo, Foltz Fine Art gallery, 2024
7. Portrait of Sarah Wilson at Foltz Fine Art gallery. Photo by Casey Woods
8. Photograph of Sarah Wilson between her large-scale portraits of women workers during COVID, from the project, ESSENTIALS.