Byrd Williams IVMapping Public Space* Being an outsider in an unfamiliar culture has its advantages if one is willing to allow preconception dissolve into perception. Robert Frank successfully did just this when he drove across the United States in 1956, creating his unsettling portrait of Cold War America. But this time around it is an American behind the camera, a Texan drawing sustenance from a different age of photographic convention, leaving America to photograph a culture that is much more self-conscious than the one frank encountered. Williams was born in Corpus Christi and lives in Ft. Worth, Texas, a town still preoccupied with the romantic trappings of its ranching heritage, and still largely surrounded by vast panoramas of dry, undulating grasslands. Yet he brought to Germany a visual sophistication derived from being a part of a long line of photographers- his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather each shuttled regularly between the camera and darkroom-and a deep knowledge of the vicissitudes of artistic photography. A photography instructor by trade, he has long found himself attracted to depict the at times unnerving peculiarities of late-twentieth century American culture.
The keeper of the moments ** You could call Byrd Williams IV a scientist because he mixes metol, sodium bisulfite, sodium sulfite, pyrokatin, and potassium bromide to create his very own formula for accentuating highlights. But most people think of Williams, a fourth generation photographer, as an artist, and though elements of his career may be steeped in science, his very being is entrenched in what he considers a study of the culture of life – photography. Williams, the Collin County Community College District (Collin) Photography Department chair, is a published writer and international artist whose work has been shown at the Dallas Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum and in D Magazine, Polo Magazine and many other publications throughout the United States and Germany. Williams was awarded a full fellowship for the completion of his Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University. He was also selected as an artist in residence in Bad EMS, Germany and lived at “Schloss Balmoral,” better known as Wagner’s Castle. His work on the civic use of German, French, Belgian, English and Dutch street corners was featured on television and exhibited in the castle and at a museum in Trier, Germany. “Photographs have such a heavy baggage of human response. There is a little hint of the eye or a moment of recognition because photographs connect at that level. They are working the best when they are working subconsciously. You don’t just get a surface map but rather the viewer sees what you are thinking or feeling in a spontaneous way,” said Williams. Download Powerpoint presentation (23MB PPT)
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