Sarah Wilson
Three years ago contributing photographer Sarah Wilson left New York and moved back to her hometown of Austin, where her boyfriend, Keith Maitland, wanted to film a documentary about the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. “I had never worked with kids who are visually impaired, and I was struck at how quickly you forget that anything is different,” Wilson says. That project led to her photographs for “Out of Sight”. As for the film, The Eyes of Me, Maitland is putting on the finishing touches and hopes to submit it to various festivals this fall.
Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Stephanie Elizondo Griest first contemplated going to Mexico a few summers ago, when she was in Arizona and encountered a group of border crossers. The Corpus Christi native was already a seasoned traveler (100 Places Every Woman Should Go), but venturing south represented a new challenge. “The stakes were higher,” says the 34-year-old Mexican American. “Mexico is in my DNA, so I really wanted to accept it and to be accepted.” Her fears were quelled in 2005, when she spent several months exploring the country and finally connecting with her roots. She recounts her journey in Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines, out this month (read an excerpt).
Charlie Llewellin
“This assignment wasn’t as relaxing as you might think,” says new media director (and überoutdoorsman) Charlie Llewellin, who wrote our roundup of the state’s 25 best swimming holes (“Springs Eternal”). Llewellin spent eight days on the road, revisiting old favorites and hunting for new places. “I’d get to a spot, swim around for twenty minutes, make notes, and get back in the car. I am now an expert at the backseat shorts-to-trunks superman costume change.”
