NEWFANE-The Crowell Art Gallery at Moore Free Library is exhibiting photos taken in Mexico by Kate Cleghorn through Tuesday, Dec. 30.
The photographs featured are from Cleghorn’s 2024 book, Mexico: Spirit of Place.
“They’re photographs taken from all over the country. I’ve been east, west, north, south. I’ve been to a lot of rural villages. That’s where I particularly like to go,“ explains Cleghorn, of Putney.
She is pretty familiar with Mexican photographers and photography and mentions a few that have influenced her: “Henri Cartier-Bresson, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Edward Weston, and Tina Modotti, as well as a few others.”
Cleghorn worked for the Summer Abroad department of the Experiment in International Living, an organization that sent her to Mexico in 1984 as the leader of a group of adults heading to Puebla, to live with families and study Mexican cuisine.
The Experiment, now World Learning, is the umbrella organization of the School for International Training in Brattleboro.
During that initial trip, Cleghorn did take a few personal photos. “I didn’t have the idea of creating a photo project at that time, or a book or anything,” she says. “It was just, you know, photographs to remember what I’d done and where I’d been.”
In Mexico, Cleghorn found “a lot going on in terms of the culture, lots of indigenous groups, and incredible history, incredible topography.”
She decided to keep returning, and in time she began pursuing photography seriously.
As described by the show’s publicity materials, Cleghorn directed the Summer Abroad program for the Experiment in International Living in Michoacan in 1987, “which offered language and cross-cultural training to teens prior to their living with families,” and she “combined her love of Mexico with her photographic interest by assisting the director of Other Americas photography programs on trips to Mexico in 1993, 1994, and 1995.”
She has led programs to Mexico for the Community College of Vermont and the former Great River Arts Institute of New Hampshire.
She earned a Master of Hispanic Studies degree from Auburn University and an Master of Fine Arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She also has a Juris Doctor degree from Vermont Law School.
Capturing photos and opportunities
Cleghorn went through thousands of her negatives to select approximately 50 images for her book.
“I’d always wanted to publish a book of photographs of Mexico, and it seemed like it was finally the right time, which was very great for me,” she says.
Cleghorn started taking photo classes at the Community College of Vermont and studied independently with local photographers.
Most of her photo experiences outside the U.S. have been either assisting someone, leading groups, or directing programs.
“I studied a foreign language and looked for opportunities to use it,” she says. “I think it’s useful and fulfilling to study other cultures and languages and be willing to volunteer in order to gain experience.”
After the success of publishing a collection of photos from her trip, Cleghorn says, “I thought that maybe I would make some [palladian] prints for the exhibit from the book. So that’s what the exhibit is.”
She is working on several portfolios currently which consist of multiple color portfolios in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru. She is also a member and one of the founding board members of the Vermont Center for Photography.
For aspiring photographers, “I recommend taking classes, taking workshops, and then, when you’re ready, start exhibiting one piece at a time, and go from there,” Cleghorn says.
The Crowell Art Gallery is located within the Moore Free Library at 23 West St. in Newfane. Hours are Tuesday and Wednesday from 1 to 5 p.m., Thursday from 1 to 6 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This Arts item by Alyssa Grosso was written for The Commons.