Beside(s) Me
A photo essay begins and ends with a story, one that can be told without any words. Here you’ll find a glimpse of N.A. Wilson’s visual narrative Beside(s) Me, a photography project that displays and affirms DFW’s multiculturalism.
An Unfractured Look at One of the United States’ Most Culturally Diverse Regions—one portrait at a time.
“Some people seek the world intemperately, without ever knowing much about it. They gather up and carry off all they can in life without ever knowing what life really has to offer. They often miss beauty, goodness, and truth, the only benefits of living.” – N.A. Wilson
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"I heard about Nate's Beside(s) Me project through a friend, and I was so excited to represent Urdu speaking Pakistanis in the DFW area. In our day to day lives, it's easy to miss just how diverse our communities are, and this photo project will bring all of us closer to understanding the richness of our metroplex. "
Urooj Alam, Urdo
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"As a proud Brazilian Texan, it is an honor to be able to share my language and represent Brazilian Portuguese in the DFW metroplex. What I love about the Beside(s) Me project is that it sheds light on the complexity of our community and the many cultures contributing to our cities."
–Layane Maximiliano, Portuguese
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"Nate, with his passion and heart for understanding nations and people groups, their culture and traditions, has done an amazing work of art to bring the unspoken words and stories of the nations and people groups with an extremely professional work to one picture. I admire and cherish Nate's work."
–Paul Golhashem, Farsi
Recent Portraits
Here you will see examples of Nate’s recent portraits of various languages spoken in the DFW Metroplex. Some are simply test shots while others may be chosen for print.
About the project
Nate is careful to reveal only certain aspects of his project. He wants to conceal certain realities about our collective social presence until the opening of his first exhibit. What can be said is that this project is concerned with cutting through idealized perceptions of important cultural issues. Here, of course, Nate is emphasizing language diversity, but his efforts should culminate to meaningful social commentary about life in DFW.
As far as the art is concerned, Nate is shooting each portrait using medium format film cameras, thereby limiting the number of exposures per subject. Using film also prevents subjects from reviewing the work in real time. Shooting analogue, as opposed to digitally, will push back against contemporary forms of mediated communications, where the middle (media) often reflects only an altered version of reality. Nate wants as little control over the middle as possible. He is simply taking portraits of other than English language speakers until he has photographed all or most of the languages spoken in DFW. Behind the portraits is a lot of relationship building, listening, storytelling and research.
A note from N.A. Wilson
“It could be that what thoroughly depreciates my work as a didactic artist is an exhibition-goer remembering my event as just a photo gallery. I’m an artist, okay, but so what if all I’ve done is hung my photos in a public space? Is that enough? Because my work is an ethical review of important cultural issues; because I focus on unity-shaping projects; and because I believe art endowed with meaning has a way of turning presumptions inside out, I am moved not by aesthetic impulses but by the conviction that people are desperately searching for meaning.
What I hope to do in my work is bear witness to those ethical principles which lead to human good and flourishing; I want to revive the virtues of love, charity, hospitality, compassion and justice, where real meaning is found.”
International Work
Nate first began documenting different cultures (the Sérère and Wolof ethnoreligious groups) in 2003 in Senegal, Africa. Since then, he has returned to Africa and worked in Central America and Europe. Below are samples of his work from 2008-2024.
South Africa 2008
Zulu farmer in the Drakensberg Mountains
Nicaragua 2011
School boy in El Crucero
Ireland 2008
Romanian panhandler in Dublin
South Africa 2008
Zulu woman near the Tugela River
Nicaragua 2011
Proud grandmother in Jinotepe
Ireland 2008
Dublin busker
Nicaragua 2013
Nicaraguan women in Jinotepe
Nicaragua 2013
Local family in Masaya
Ireland 2008
Grazing sheep in Howth
The Background
2013-2015
Nate began developing Beside(s) Me after years traveling as an international documentary photographer. Desiring to continue his work on important cultural issues, he decided to bring his personal work home to North Dallas.
One might point to his eventual work as a researcher and analyst at a think tank that prevented him from launching the project sooner, but Nate simply believed the right time had not yet come.
2016
In early 2016 Nate presented a six-week ethics lecture series on faith and politics where he observed the pervasiveness of unchecked xenophobic attitudes. Because of this, and the burgeoning racial tensions during the U.S. presidential race, Nate finally launched Beside(s) Me.
He promptly began his research into people’s awareness of DFW’s cultural diversity.
2017-2020
Nate’s research was interrupted by a 2017 hospitalization and the lingering effects of his diagnosis and treatment. Continued difficulties over the following 2 years prevented him from devoting much energy to his project.
Gaining momentum was difficult during that time, and even more so, when COVID-19 effectively stopped all progress scheduling portraits and with his research (distributing his survey was virtually impossible).
2021-2022
Nate has resumed scheduling portraits, now that many COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted. In addition to resuming his research, he is also seeking sponsors.
The Data
With a population of about 7.5 million, Dallas–Forth-Worth is the 4th most populous metropolitan area in the United States and among the most language diverse.
According to the United States Census Bureau, 40.6 percent of Dallas County residents speak a language other than English at home. (Tarrant, 28%; Collin, 24.8%; and Denton, 22%) That is 1,701,077 people living in the four largest counties in DFW whose first language is not English.