Laura Wilson

Laura Cunningham Wilson (born October 13, 1939) is an American photographer. She has completed five books of photography and text: Watt Matthews of Lambshead (1989), Hutterites of Montana (2000), Avedon at Work: In the American West (2003), Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football (2003), and That Day: Pictures in the American West (2015). She is the mother of actors Owen Wilson, Andrew Wilson, and Luke Wilson. Life and career Wilson was born Laura Cunningham and raised in Norwell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Rosemary Cunningham (née White) and Edward J. Cunningham. She majored in art at Connecticut College, graduating in 1961. She married Robert Wilson in 1963, and the couple moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1965. Wilson's attraction to photographs started as a young girl when she became interested in family photographs. Some of her earliest photographs are of her three young sons: "I had majored in painting in college. But with three little boys underfoot, I didn't have time to lift a paintbrush. Then a friend gave me a camera. I realized at once that the boys were perfect subjects." Wilson's son Owen credits his and his brothers' comfort in front of a camera to being frequently photographed by their mother. Wilson's professional career was launched in 1979 when Richard Avedon hired her to assist with his exhibition and book In the American West, which was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum. Wilson traveled with Avedon for six years, helping him find subjects to photograph. Wilson also wrote the text for In the American West. Wilson's work with Avedon helped her become deeply familiar with the West and provided inspiration for her later projects. Wilson's photographs acknowledge the spectrum of cultures that occupy the West.