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.