Laura Wilson: An Inventory of Her Papers and Photographs in the Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom Center

Laura Wilson:

An Inventory of Her Papers and Photographs in the Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom Center

	Creator:	Wilson, Laura, 1939-
	Title:	Laura Wilson Papers and Photographs
	Dates:	1979-2004
	Extent:	5 document boxes and 7 oversize boxes (12.2 linear feet)
	Abstract:	The Laura Wilson Papers and Photographs document her work with photographer Richard Avedon from 1979 to 1984, and resultant exhibitions and publications from 1985 to 2003.
	Call Number:	Photography Collection PH-02017
	Language:	English

Access:

Open for research

Digitized sound recordings are available for this collection. Click here to explore.

Administrative Information

	Acquisition:	Gift, 2004 (G12399)
	Processed by:	Mary Alice Harper and Liz Murray, 2004

Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Biographical Sketch

	Photojournalist Laura Wilson was born in 1939 and raised in New England. She married author, editor, and entrepreneur Robert A. Wilson, with whom she has three sons, Andrew, Owen, and Luke.
	Always interested in photography and photojournalism, Wilson photographed her sons throughout their childhoods, and pored over books by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques Henri Lartigue, and Eugene Smith. Her professional career began in 1978 when she met photographer Richard Avedon through her husband's involvement with the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Wilson worked as an assistant to Avedon from 1979 to 1984 while he embarked on the project that culminated in his landmark exhibition In the American West at the Amon Carter Museum, and a book of the same title, in 1985. While in the field, Wilson documented their progress both on paper and film, and in 2003 she published a recollection of their experiences in Avedon at Work: In the American West.
	Since her time with Avedon, Wilson has gained a reputation of her own working as a photojournalist. Her projects have taken her from photographing the life of a West Texas rancher, Watt Matthews, to capturing life in the Hutterite colonies of Montana over a fourteen-year period.
	Wilson is the author of several books including Watt Matthews of Lambshead (1989), Hutterites of Montana (2000), and Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football (2003). Her work has been published in numerous magazines including Aperture, the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, the Washington Post Magazine, Texas Monthly, and the Sunday Times (London). She and her husband reside in Dallas, Texas.

Sources:

	Dingus, Anne. "Her Three Sons." Texas Monthly 24, no. 5 (1996): 132-139.
	Wilson, Laura. Avedon at Work: In the American West. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. Hutterites of Montana. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Scope and Contents

	The Laura Wilson Papers and Photographs document her work with photographer Richard Avedon from 1979 to 1984, and resultant exhibitions and publications from 1985 to 2003.
	The collection is organized into two series: Series I. “In the American West: Photographs by Richard Avedon” Project, and Series II. Avedon at Work: In the American West.
	The first series comprises materials relating to Avedon, his project, and the resulting exhibition and book. There are notes taken by Wilson while traveling with Avedon, project updates submitted to the Amon Carter Museum, subject release forms, and some correspondence. The bulk of the material is clippings on Avedon and In the American West from 1979 to 2001. Also included are a few layouts for the exhibition and book, an exhibition catalog, and a transcript of the In the American West seminar held at the Amon Carter Museum on September 14, 1985.
	Series II. documents Wilson's own publication and includes several folders of research notes and twenty-four work prints. Of note are the production materials which consist of a project overview, several typescripts and dummies, and sixty-four black-and-white publication prints used to make the book. In addition there is a small amount of correspondence between Wilson and Avedon and Wilson and her publishers, two publicity posters, and information on another seminar at the Amon Carter Museum in 2003.

Separated Material

Audio-visual materials received with the collection (seven sound recordings and two videos, most of which are interviews with or about Avedon) have been transferred to appropriate collections in the Ransom Center. See the Audio-Visual Index at the end of this finding aid for additional information.

Index Terms

	Subjects
		Avedon, Richard.
		Documentary photography--West (U.S.).
		Portrait photography--West (U.S.)--Exhibitions.
	Document Types
		Gelatin silver prints.

Collections