Acequia Madre Sharon Stewart

As founding vice-president of the Houston Center for Photography, Sharon Stewart served on its board for many years. She volunteered and exhibited during the biennial festival FotoFest’s formative years; apprenticed in corporate and fashion photo studios; and, with writer Steven Fenberg, embarked on the Toxic Tour of Texas, a survey portraying citizen – activists who effectively challenged government and industry hazardous waste practices that were damaging their communities’ air, land, water, health, and culture.

At the time, she was simultaneously energized by the photo-narrative’s activist impact and the pull to leave the commercial and urban world for a quieter rural life. Wanting to live fully in the restorative face of nature, she resettled in the village of Chacón, high in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. Her interest in the link between culture and landscape began with a childhood in agrarian South Texas on the Mexican border and from far reaching travels with her parents, both of which made her aware of the landscape’s intertwining influence on people’s lives. 

Stewart has lived in Chacón for 31 years where she set out establishing a studio and gardens, building soil and relationships, while also pondering her photographic purpose. She was inspired to serve history by exploring and chronicling a local culture redolent in tradition and ritual. She photographed the Mora Valley’s land-based way of life supported by acequias that were significantly damaged by the 2022 Hermit’s Peak + Calf Canyon Fire and ensuing floods.

Stewart’s work is in the collections at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; the New Mexico Museum of Art; Harwood Museum of Art, Taos; and the Art Museum Princeton University, among many other notable collections. Her recent exhibitions include El Cerrito: A Village Life Portrait, Ray Drew Gallery, NM Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM; What Creeps From the Earth, Tavros Art Space Athens, Greece; Off/Center: New Mexico Art, 1970-2000, Vladem Contemporary, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe; and Going With The Flow: Art, Actions, And Western Waters, SITE SANTA FE. 

More of her work can be found on her website: www.sharonstewartphotography.net.

5pm - Welcome and gather for dinner and drinks
5:30 - Seating and screening starts
6:30 - Break and dessert and coffee served
6:45 - Sharon Stewart talk
7:00 - Q and A with Artist Stewart and Filmmaker Chapa

Watch below for the trailer.