Artist Don Usner. Courtesy photoHSFF News:
Historic Santa Fe Foundation (HSFF) will host Portraits of Chimayosos by Don Usner, from the Chimayó Museum Collection May 17 through June 30.
The exhibition opens 5-7 p.m. Friday, May 18 in the sala of El Zaguán at 545 Canyon Road in Sante Fe, and continues through June 30.
The exhibition at Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s El Zaguàn features Usner’s black-and-white portraits of many of the residents of the historic village of Chimayó. The prints are part of a collection that is permanently housed at the Chimayó Museum.
Historic Santa Fe Foundation presents the June Salon El Zaguán monthly lecture series with Don Usner on Chimayó and the Plaza del Cerro. The talk is 3 p.m. Thursday, June 14 in the sala of HSFF offices 545 Canyon Road Suite 2 in Sante Fe. There is no charge for admission for members and the non-members entry fee is $5.
RSVP is required to 505.983.2567 orinfo@historicsantafe.org. Membership information, see the Join & Give page.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Don Usner has spent decades documenting the history of Chimayó, in words and in photographs. When he began work on his Master’s thesis on the Plaza del Cerro in Chimayó, he realized that studying the plaza’s historic buildings without also portraying the people who inhabited them would produce nothing more than a discussion of “lifeless shells.” Accordingly, he recorded oral histories and commenced to take portraits of people from the plaza and throughout Chimayó. This show presents some of the many photographs he has produced in his continuing effort to celebrate and recount stories of Chimayó’s rich history.
ABOUT THE ARTIST/SPEAKERDon Usner was born in Embudo, New Mexico, and grew up in Los Alamos and Chimayó. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a master’s degree in geography at the University of New Mexico. He has authored and provided the photographs for several books, including The Natural History of Big Sur; Sabino’s Map: Life in Chimayó’s Old Plaza; Benigna’s Chimayó: Cuentos from the Old Plaza; Valles Caldera: A Vision for New Mexico’s National Preserve (winner of a Southwest Book Award in 1996); Chasing Dichos through Chimayó(a finalist for a 2015 New Mexico—Arizona Book Award); and Órale! Lowrider: Custom Made in New Mexico. Usner has also published articles and photographs in serial publications, and recent public exhibitions of Usner’s photography include prints in the show Lowriders, Hoppers, and Hot Rods: Car Culture of Northern New Mexico at the New Mexico History Museum; and in Con Cariño: Artists Inspired by Lowriders, at the New Mexico Museum of Art.
Usner teaches photography and works as a writer and photographer in Santa Fe as he cultivates his lifelong interest in cultural and natural history.
