New York photographer Susan Paulsen has family in the Southeast Arkansas town of Wilmot, a place she has photographed many times on her visits there. The exhibit “Susan Paulsen: Wilmot,” of photos that have also been compiled into a book by the same name, opens to the public Friday, June 27, at the Arkansas Arts Center. Also Friday, Wilmot will give a talk about the show at the Arts Center’s “Feed Your Mind Friday” from noon to 1 p.m.
The exhibition features more than 70 photographs taken between 1995 and 2012 and was organized by the Maison europeenee de la photgraphie in Paris. The press release explains her goal of expressing the idea of home:
“Wilmot is a little town in Ashley County, in southeast Arkansas. … A few years ago, Susan Paulsen set out to tell a kind of story, to chronicle a place in Arkansas through evocative photographs taken there over the course of many visits, in all seasons of the year. … Together, they form a picture of a place. For the artist, that place has a personal importance — part of her family comes from there, and for generations it has been a kind of homing place for them. Through her photographs of this particular place, she wants, as she has said, to make a sort of poem about all such places; to find commonalities among these individuals and people in other places. Her goal, from the outset, has been to evoke all the Wilmots, wherever they might be. But still there is this town, these people …” – From the essay by George T. M. Shackelford, Susan Paulsen: Wilmot.
The exhibition runs through Sept. 28. Two of Paulsen’s books will be available for purchase in the Arts Center gift shop. Sponsors of the show are Brenda Mize and June and Edmond Freeman.