Statement
What if we were able to let go of our egos, to believe we are one small part of the natural world, taking what we need instead of all we can get, giving all we can so all the other species of flora and fauna on this precious Earth can live, too? I walk in the shade of trees, in meadows and alongside streams and on mountaintops, listening to birds and insects and coyotes and the wind and sometimes silence, smelling green, dirt, rocks, the ocean, the deer that bedded down in the leaves the night before, feeling the sun and snow — and I feel happy and so lucky to be here. This is how I survive the news of the day. It’s what I need, and what we all really need in our lonely, disconnected souls:  to open our arms to the Earth’s wonders, to wrap our hearts around the solace it offers, to tread gingerly, paying attention, with gratitude.

Photographs in this exhibit include work from the projects “Liable to Disappear” and “We are everything, we are nothing,” and are printed by the artist with archival pigment on gampi with gold leaf and gold/palladium leaf. 

About Rhonda Lashley Lopez – 
Rhonda Lashley Lopez began printing with platinum/palladium and gold leaf in 2009 and since that time has experimented with a multitude of papers and ways of printing that help convey her messages based on a life narrated by nature.

She began working seriously in photography while earning a master’s degree, specializing in photojournalism, at UT Austin. Back then, she shot with film and printed in the darkroom. She worked in newspapers, as photographer, writer and editor, and completed a documentary photo book, Don’t Make Me Go to Town: Ranchwomen of the Texas Hill Country, published by UT Press in 2011. She taught journalism and photojournalism in college settings and worked as an editor at Austin Monthly.

After the publication of the book, which coincided with personal joys and tragedies and a move to a tiny town in the Rocky Mountains, she decided to pursue a different kind of photography, something more expressive and personal. In that quiet space, surrounded by trees and mountains, she was able to give voice, through photography, to her experiences.

A book of Lashley Lopez’ work is being published this year by Datz Press in an edition of 100 handmade books, with a special edition of 20 to follow.

CV

Exhibits and Honors
Upcoming: Monograph to be published by Datz Press in September 2021

Upcoming: Griffin Museum of Photography, solo exhibit, September – October 2021

Publication of photos from “Liable to Disappear” by Emergence Magazine, accompanying articles by Terry Tempest Williams and Lucy Jones – 2020

Datz Museum, Seoul, South Korea: “Philosopher’s Stone,” four-person exhibit, through August 2020

Truth and Beauty Gallery, Vancouver, online gallery solo exhibit, March – April 2020

Center for Creative Photography “Qualities of Light” exhibition and inclusion in permanent collection, Dec. 2019 – May 2020

Photography at Oregon, Eugene, two-person exhibit, Dec. 2019 – Jan. 2020

Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, International Juried Exhibition, Nov. 2019 – Jan. 2020

Work selected for Diffusion X photography publication, 2020

IPA International Photo Awards, honorable mention in professional categories: fine art, nature and editorial-environmental, 2019

Shortlisted for Hariban Award, International Collotype Competition, 2019

Artist’s books on exhibit at Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Mass., 2019

13th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers, honorable mentions for fine art, nature and alternative processes, 2019

Critical Mass 200 finalist, 2018

Griffin Museum of Photography, 24th Annual Members’ Juried Exhibition, July- September 2018

Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco, group show, March-April 2018

PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, Vermont, group show, June 2018

Center for Photographic Art, online group show, first place award, 2018

Curatorial Work
I curated a number of shows at Photography 414 in Fredericksburg, Texas, including an exhibit of Imogen Cunningham’s photographs, which included copies of correspondence between the artist and fellow photographers Ansel Adams, Minor White and others. —

Documentary Work
Publication of Don’t Make Me Go to Town: Ranchwomen of the Texas Hill Country, University of Texas Press, 2011; a documentary work with interviews and photographs Bullock Museum of Texas History, Austin, Texas, talk and book signing, 2017 Schreiner Museum, Kerrville, Texas, talk, print exhibit, book signing, 2011 Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas, talk, print exhibit, book signing, 2011 Texas Book Festival, featured speaker and book signing, 2011 Texas Humanities Book Fair, 2011 Women’s conference, Hondo, Texas, featured speaker and book signing, 2011 Photography 414, Fredericksburg, Texas, individual show, Don’t Make Me Go to Town, platinum prints, 2009 Numerous other talks and book signings associated with Don’t Make Me Go to Town 

Journalism
I worked in newspapers and magazines in Texas on and off from the late 1980s to 2009, and worked at every editorial job, beginning as a writer of birth announcements and fishing reports to layout to photographer, photo editor, web editor, features editor, copy editor and finally managing editor.

Teaching
I taught journalism and photojournalism at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, and journalism at Austin Community College. (In my earlier career I taught special education in public elementary and high schools, and GED classes in my community.)

EDUCATION

M.A. Journalism: Photojournalism The University of Texas, Austin, 1996

B.S. Education, Elementary and Special Education Texas A&M University, Kingsville, 1984, cum laude 

View Rhonda Lashley’s Website.