D'Artagnan - Limited Edition 1 of 25 Photograph

My background in Mexican culture has had a major influence on my photography. I was raised in Laredo on the Mexican border and grew up as a Catholic in a bicultural household. My maternal family is Mexican, and I have always spent a lot of time in Mexico, beginning with frequent trips at an early age. A gourmand, bird enthusiast, and amateur botanist, in the 1970s I travelled frequently to the jungles of southern Mexico in search of rare palms and cycads. There I came in close contact with indigenous communities, which ignited my interest in the people and their traditional customs and festivals. My major photographic work, The Essence of Mexico Project, was a decade-long project to document the seasonal religious festivals-the syncretic rites and dances, costumes, masks, and ephemeral art-of the indigenous people, many of whom are still practicing traditions and honoring gods that date back to the advent of agriculture. The Essence of Mexico photographs, which continue to be shown around the world, are now in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Austin, which shares them with the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, of the San Antonio Museum of Art. My late father, George O. Jackson Sr., was an insurance executive, and I use the family name of my mother, Dolores María de Llano Villarreal, in my professional work, exhibiting under the name George O. Jackson de Llano. My mother's family came from the state of Nuevo León in northern Mexico, where my maternal great-grandfather, Rubén Villareal, owned silver mines. In around 1910, at the start of the Mexican Revolution, Villareal moved his family from Lampazos de Naranjo in Nuevo León to the border city of Laredo, Texas, where I grew up. My mother’s father was a descendant of Manuel María de Llano, who served as mayor of Monterrey and twice as governor of Nuevo León during the 19th century. My great uncle, Rodrigo de Llano, was co-founder and publisher of Excélsior, a major newspaper in Mexico City, from 1924 until his death in 1963. I live in Houston, Texas, city of my birth, where I am working on my current series of photographs, PERSONAJES CLANDESTINOS ESCONDIDOS EN LA LUZ, COLORES E SOMBRAS DE LA OBSCURIDAD. (Clandestine Personages Hiding in the Light, Colors and Shadows of Darkness)