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A non-profit dedicated to cultural diversity in photography. |
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| EN FOCO | Photographers | |
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William Wilson Born: 1969, San Francisco, CA Heritage: Dine (Navajo) Awards: Honorable Mention, En Foco’s New Works Photography Awards #10 (2006-07) William Wilson, Navajo, was born in San Francisco and moved permanently to the Navajo Reservation at the age of 10. He attended the Bureau of Indian Affair’s Tuba City Boarding School from 1978 to 1983. He holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and studio art and a master’s of fine art in photography. Wilson has worked in a variety of media and has produced large-scale multi-media installations that incorporate photography and sculpture, monumental art pieces and intimate photo essays. In addition to his profession as an artist and photographer, he is also an arts educator and community organizer. Wilson has taught sculpture at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., and he served two years as a photojournalist in Central America for the Associated Press. He currently resides in Tucson, Ariz., where he is the co-director of the Barrio Anita Community Mural Project (BAMP), the largest public art commission in Tucson’s history. BAMP features a 12,000-square-foot mural alongside the Interstate 10 sound barrier wall. The project involves the creation of a multi-media arts center for the community. The arts center features digital photography, Venetian glass tile photo-mosaic, metal work and more. Beginning in this fall Wilson will be Visiting Professor of Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Most recently Wilson’s work provides a glimpse into the complex contemporary negotiation with a land we have become alienated from, our dis-ease in understanding who we are, and possible paths for healing. Wilson’s work focuses on Navajo people and their relationship to the land. “His works are poetic and gritty meditations on the human condition and Wilson’s relationship to Dinetah, Navajo land,” notes Joe Baker, Lloyd Kiva New Curator of Fine Art at the Heard Museum. “In my work, there are stories that I grew up with, stories bringing together the cultural weave from which I come. These stories are personal to me as an individual and as a member/citizen of a people, therefore they must be presented and received with respect,” Wilson says. “I want my work to strengthen Indians with examples of resistance, and the possibilities of controlling one’s own representation.” |
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