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.
Click here to join the project.
Beside(s) Me
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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
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.
Click here to join the project