E Pluribus Unum: El Norte

On the road, coming to your town, August 26 through October 11, 2022

E Pluribus Unum: El Norte is a mobile black and white photography studio, a mobile public exhibition, a book, andlater a museum exhibition. Axle Contemporary is a mobile art gallery and for this project also serves as a natural-light photography studio. During the late summer and Fall of 2022, the studio/gallery will visit communities in Northern New Mexico, offering free photographic portrait sessions to all. We will set up at local businesses,schools, cafes, roadsides, festivals and other community gathering places.

In each portrait, the subject/participant holds a small object, brought with her/him that holds some personal significance. Each object reveals something about the identity of that individual, and anchors the photograph in a specific time and place.

Two copies of each photograph are printed immediately onsite in our solar-powered print studio. One is given, free of charge, to the participant. The other is pasted to the exterior of the studio/gallery, creating a growing mobile public exhibition. As the exterior is slowly covered in photographs, awareness and enthusiasm for the project expands for all passersby.

We plan to to visit communities throughout Northern New Mexico, likely including Taos, Española, Los Alamos, Santa Clara Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh, Dixon, Questa, Costilla, Red River, Abiquiu, Chama, Dulce, Tierra Amarilla, Las Vegas, Mora, Raton, Roy, and Clayton.

At the close of our tour, we will publish a book with all of the portraits, photographs of the onsite activity, an essay by the artists and an essay by a local leader and a poem by a local writer. The cover of the book will be an image created by digitally blending equal portions of every portrait in translucent layers. This image is part of the overall portrait of the community created by the project, and embodies the “e pluribus unum” (from many one) of the project title. Copies of the book will be donated to libraries in each of the participating towns. The book will also be offered for sale in local bookstores and online. The book is a document of the time and place where the project was created and a visual testament to the fact that we are unique individuals, and also that we are members of a whole that is larger than the sum of its parts.

An exhibition of the photographs will be presented at the Taos Center for the Arts' Encore Gallery in the summer and fall of 2023.

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E Pluribus Unum: El Norte is the fifth in our series of E Pluribus Unum (EPU) portrait projects in New Mexico.Past EPU projects took place in Santa Fe (2012), Albuquerque (2014), on and adjacent to the Navajo Nation(2016), and in Southeastern New Mexico (2018). As we visit more regions of the state, we bring to light thedistinct cultures and traditions of New Mexico, share visions of the compelling contemporary individuals thatmake up this place, and also share a vision of our shared humanity and our strength as communities.

Tentative schedule:

Aug 26 Los Alamos 

Aug 27 Española/Santa Clara

Aug 28 Poeh Center in Pojoaque/Ohkay Owingeh 

Sep 2/3 Raton 

Sep 4 Clayton   

Sept 5 Poeh Center in Pojoaque

Sep 9 Chimayo/Truchas

Sep 10 Peñasco/Millicent Rogers Museum in El Prado

Sep 11 Questa/ Costilla

Sep 16/17 Paseo Festival in Taos

Sep 18 Dixon

ßept 22 Solano

Sept 23/24 Tucumcari 

Oct 1 Las Vegas  

Oct 2 Mora

Oct 3 Las Vegas   

Oct 8 Abiquiu

Oct 9 Chama

Oct 10 Dulce

Oct 11 Tierra Amarilla

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