Photographer Basil Clemons: Witness to a West Texas Boomtown

In conjunction with Fotofest 2022, the Heritage Society is pleased to present an exhibition of 61 photographs by Basil Clemons (1887- 1964), taken in Breckenridge, Texas from the 1920s to the 1940s. When Clemons arrived in Breckenridge after working in the Yukon and joining a traveling circus, the town's oil boom was in full swing. Soon, the Breckenridge field was producing 50 million gallons a year—more than the entire state of Louisiana — and a gusher of wealth boosted the town's original population of 1,500 nearly twenty-fold by the mid-1920s. Clemons' images, as arresting and eccentric as the photographer himself, are a bohemian chronicle of a lively, free-wheeling era. A true original in every sense of the word, Clemons was largely self-taught and lived for decades in a converted chuckwagon without electricity or running water. His photographic legacy, quirky, informal and affectionate, offers an intimate view of the social history of small-town Texas and the cycle of boom and bust that characterizes the oil industry to this day.

EXHIBIT INFORMATION:

September 20, 2022 to February 2023

Albert & Ethel Herzstein Museum Gallery

1100 Bagby Street, Houston, TX 77002

Wednesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Free parking, Tickets only $5. Purchase online HERE or in person.

For Group Tours, please call 713-655-1912 or email us at info@heritagesociety.org.

This exhibition of large portrait photographs, entitled Faces of the other: Encounters in the midst of the city, shows that people in our world—those we walk past daily—can be approached and understood. It demonstrates our similarities rather than our differences. Each portrait brings viewers into its space in an intimate and loving way and, in this highly technological age, portrays our humanity in an analog medium. The subjects in these photos, while all different, are brought together in this exhibition to help us understand that we are alike in many ways. The photographs in this exhibition, 3 feet x 5 feet, are mounted on the fences that surround Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston until December 1, 2022. The people in the images are portrayed as larger than life, and we can see them up close. Their eyes look directly at us in a non-threatening way. They say we mean you no harm.

About the Artist

Joe C. Aker is an internationally recognized Architectural Photographer and Artist.  His architectural work has appeared in all the major architectural magazines, and he has photographed projects for major architects and developers.  He was recognized as Artist of the Year by the Houston AIA chapter in 2007.  He grew up in Oklahoma City and has a degree in Marketing and Economics from Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma, and a degree in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.  He opened his own photography studio in 1978 and continues to operate it today as Aker Imaging.  In 2005, Joe began to exhibit his own fine artwork.  His work has appeared in numerous museum group shows and is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.  He has lectured on photography worldwide.  More info at www.facesoftheother.com. 

WOMAN: SPIRIT OF THE UNIVERSE EXHIBIT

The artist, Carolyn Marks Johnson, created the exhibit, Woman: Spirit of the Universe to be a celebration about women who had spirit and a desire to accomplish things for other women. Through bronzed collar sculptures, Johnson exemplifies 21 women who made a contribution to all women in the effort to gain equality.

• Abigail Adams, advocate for women’s rights

• Elizabeth Blackwell, the first medical school graduate and the first woman’s medical school founder

• Myra Bradwell, the first lawyer

• Margaret Brent, first woman in the English North American colonies to appear before a court of the common law

• Deborah Sampson Gannett, who wanted to be a soldier and put on men’s clothing and fought bravely

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who knew that what is good for women is good for men and that what is good for men is good for women. She inspires us to say that reason exists that men and women were placed here together but we have a duty to stand with other women, to join them in bringing improvement for all women, to share power, when we get it, with them, to work and promote them, and to be proud of the progress they made. If we do that, woman will truly be the spirit that holds the Universe together.

• Barbara Jordan, Texas State Senator and Congresswomen who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement

• Dorothea Lange, whose photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression

• Sen. Mazie Keiko Hirono, one of the first Asian women of color to enter congress

• Dolores Huerta, who brought labor rights to grape pickers

• Chief Wilma Mankiller who led the Cherokee Nation

• Patsy Takemoto Mink, one of the first Asian women of color to enter congress

• Georgia O’Keeffe, who is the Mother of Modernism in American Art

• Nancy Pelosi, first woman as Speaker of the House of Representatives

• Ann Richards, 45th Governor of Texas

• Sally Ride, who broke the glass into space

• Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who redefined the role of the First Lady, she advocated for human and women's rights

• Betsy Ross, seamstress of “Old Glory”

• Margaret Louise Higgins Sanger who believed women had a basic right to know and understand their own bodies

• Sonya Sotomayor first Latina, first Hispanic, and first woman of color to become a Supreme Court justice

• Sojourner Truth, carried the message of abolition to every part of America she could reach

• Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her time, known for freeing enslaved people
  
  Over the last six years, artist Carolyn Marks Johnson designed and created each special sculpture piece to honor a woman who made a difference for other women.” The collars begin with hand-stitched and hand-worked cotton; they end with the permanence of bronze, each a celebration of a single woman’s accomplishment! The late Philip Renteria (1947 -1999), a sculpture teacher at Glassell School of Art in Houston, donated the name of the exhibit and the idea in conversation with the artist about one of his own works. He believed that the spirit of the universe is feminine and woman’s spirit holds the universe together.

Museum Gallery Showtimes (“Hours”): Tuesday – Saturday; 10 a.m.– 4 p.m.

Admission: $5 for adults, $2 for children ages 6–12. Members receive free entry as a benefit.

The exhibit will be available for your enjoyment until Fall 2022.