Duarte (Susan Gaetz.) Photographic Archive, 1991-2006

Creator Sketch:

Susan Gaetz Duarte is an editorial and documentary photographer based in Austin, Texas. Her images have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including National Geographic, Wilderness Travel, Texas Medicine, Body & Soul, The Denver Post and the Dallas Morning News. Other clients include the Ford Foundation and the American Medical Association.

She was the press office photographer to former Texas Governor Ann Richards and a stringer for Agence France-Presse wire service. Her images have been featured in national group shows and multiple solo exhibitions in Texas. She received her master's degree in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994 and is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP).

In 2006, her documentary photography book about the Mennonite community in Lott, Texas, The Quiet in the Land: Mennonites in Texas, was published by Texas A&M University Press. Her co-author, Laura Camden, documented the Mennonite community in Seminole, Texas. Other books featuring Duarte's photography include Governor Ann Richards and Other Texas Women, The Book of Days, and Healing Massage. Gaetz Duarte is currently a professor of photojournalism at the University of Texas at Austin.

Scope and Contents:

Collection includes notes, publications by and about Mennonites, slides, machine prints, jpegs, black and white photographs, book materials for The Quiet in the Land and notes on exhibitions of Duarte and Camden's photographs in conjunction with their Mennonite projects. The Mennonite community of Lott, Texas, portrayed in Duarte's work is a small group of less than 500 members known as the Faith Mennonite Fellowship, who are Beachy Amish Mennonites. They meet as one congregation and school their children in the Beachy school, which is adjacent to the church. Although farming is a preferred way of life for the Mennonites, the land in and around Lott does not offer sufficient support for families so most of the community members work at other jobs. Duarte documented the people and way of life of this faith community from 1991 to 1992 as the subject of her master's thesis in the photojournalism department at the University of Texas at Austin.

[see also Camden (Laura L.) Photographic Archive]

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

Prints and manuscript materials are unrestricted; all transparent media is restricted. Please contact repository for more information.

Administrative Information

Donated by Susan Gaetz Duarte.

Preferred Citation:

Duarte (Susan Gaetz) Photographic Archive, the Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Detailed Description of the Collection