Photography of George O. Jackson, Jr., to be exhibited at Smithsonian Institution

Laredo native George O. Jackson, Jr., has been invited by the prestigious Smithsonian Institution in Washington , D.C. , to exhibit photographs from his collection, The Essence of Mexico Project, at the National Museum of Natural History. The exhibition will open October 2, 2006. Coincidentally, the grand opening will take place on Jackson 's 65th birthday.

It marks the first time a Laredoan has been honored with a Smithsonian exhibition. Jackson 's photos document the important festivals of Mexico 's folk cultures as they existed during the final decade of the millennium.

“I have been photographing Mexico since the late 1970s,” said Jackson . “I realized that the last decade of the millennium was an important time to extract the essence of the Mexican folk festival as it existed during that milestone period. For 11 years, I photographed the important festivals of each of Mexico 's 60-plus indigenous folk cultures. Some of them reflect ancient cultural activity that originated some 4,000 years ago with the advent of agriculture. The inspired ephemeral festival art also fascinated me. It seems to spring directly from the souls of its creators.”

The Smithsonian has granted 600 feet of wall space for the exhibition, which will be on display for several months. After that, the exhibit will travel, with San Antonio likely to be an early stop. It will then move to the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City . From there it will go to museums in Madrid , Paris , and London .

Jackson 's work will be permanently housed between the San Antonio Museum of Art's Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art in San Antonio and the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas in Austin . Publications related to the photographs will come from the Rockefeller Center , and research related to the project will take place at the Benson Center . Jackson now lives in Austin , where he is working with Benson Center curators to archive his thousands of slides.

“The Benson Center considers this a very important acquisition,” said Jackson . “They told me that some of the photographs break new ground in recording cultural history.”

Jackson 's work has previously been exhibited in major museums in the U.S. and Mexico . An overview of his project can be viewed at www.thessenceofmexicoproject.org.

Laredoans got a television preview of 22 of Jackson 's photographs on Border Voices in the Arts , a Laredo Public Access television program on Channel 3. Moderator Sara Puig Laas interviewed Jackson . “Anyone interested in Mexican culture will enjoy seeing Jackson's work,” said Laas. “I felt privileged to share some of it with Laredoans this far in advance of the Smithsonian exhibition.”