Teenage Boy, Austin, TX, 2007 is included in the Fotofest Biennial 2026, “GLOBAL VISIONS: Fotofest at 40” opening today in Houston, Texas and on view through May 10.

The exhibition brings together work by international photographers to celebrate the festival’s 40^th anniversary since it was founded in 1986. A print of this portrait was originally exhibited with a larger selection of my work at the Houston Fotofest 2010 in “Contemporary U.S. Photography: Whatever Was Splendid” curated by Aaron Schuman. The following is an excerpt from a short essay by author Charles Baxter about the work in 2010 exhibition – the full essay is on my website. 

“And then there are the pictures in which something wild—a white horse, a snarling dog, a teenaged boy—is caught in mid-gesture. Tema Stauffer’s eye has captured an almost indescribable contradiction in these pictures: the boys and the dog are straining to get loose, but they’re not free, and neither is that horse. The boys in particular are marked by shyness and are still almost girlish, and like boys everywhere they are half in love with death and its symbols; their wildness makes them seem only half-domesticated, but it’s their eyes that you remember best. Their eyes are as alert as children’s, but children who have been frightened by something they’ve seen and who wish to disguise that fear out of self-protection. The resulting energy is kinetic: they seem almost ready to bolt, and at the same time they seem burdened by an affliction that they cannot name. So we have stillness and wildness, almost at war with each other, trying to occupy the same space.” 

Charles Baxter, 2010 

Charles Baxter will present an author lecture in conjunction with the Wonderlands exhibition at the Reece Museum on Tuesday, March 10 at 3pm. He is the author of six novels, six books of stories, and three books on the craft of fiction. Baxter is the Edelstein-Keller Professor of Creative Writing (Emeritus) at the University of Minnesota, and he lives in Minneapolis.

A reception and walkthroughs for WONDERLANDS and Through the Light: Sculpture Works by Molly Sawyer will be held on Friday, February 13 from 5-8pm at ETSU’s Reece Museum. Catalogs for both exhibitions are available at the museum.

WONDERLANDS opens today in Gallery C of ETSU’s Reece Museum and will be on view through May 22. A reception for the solo exhibition will be held on Friday, February 13 from 5-8pm, along with a reception for ‘Through the Light: Sculptural works by Molly Sawyer’ in Galleries A and B. WONDERLANDS explores the intersection of tourism, religion, and folklore with natural beauty, preservation, and decay in southern Appalachia. The title of the series draws inspiration from novelist Charles Baxter’s collection of essays about fiction writing, ‘Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature,’ in which he describes settings that reflect a heightened psychological atmosphere in specific literary works. “Wonderlands are caused by, or are expressive of, emotional instability, estrangement, fantasy, and solitude,” Baxter writes. The exhibition focuses on settings that evoke characteristics of wonderlands in counties of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and southeastern Virginia. Roadside attractions, religious iconography, relics, and verdant landscapes create a psychic experience that is at once eerily still and emotionally charged. The most recent photographs in the series capture tragic destruction against the backdrop of natural beauty after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the region in 2024. In conversation with the photographs are a selection of Appalachian artifacts from the Reece Museum’s collection, creating a unique dialogue that connects visual art and material culture.

The inaugural exhibition at ETSU’s new Tipton-Ashe Gallery at 401 Ashe Street in Johnson City opens with a reception on Friday, September 5 from 6-8pm. Curated by Lyn Govette, Layered, Woven, and Pierced: The Appalachian Soul One Year On, considers the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene last fall through the work of more than twenty regional artists. My photograph in this show, first exhibited last winter at Tracey Morgan Gallery in a group exhibition about the hurricane called Postdiluvian, depicts the tragic destruction along the Nolichucky River in Erwin, Tennessee. The Impact Plastics factory nearby was destroyed, and the lives of six employees were lost to the floodwaters during the storm on September 27, 2024. I appreciate the opportunity to participate with another group of artists in reflecting on trauma and resilience in our community. The exhibition will be on view through October 18.

A print of Black Truck, Nolichucky River, Erwin, TN (2024) is included in POSTDILUVIAN at Tracey Morgan Gallery opening on Friday, January 31 from 6-8pm at 22 London Road in Asheville. The exhibition features work by 20 artists living and working in Western North Carolina, and is co-curated by Asheville-based artist, curator, and educator Erika Diamond. Postdiluvian reflects on recovery, resilience, and the enduring strength of community four months sense Helene ravaged our region. 10% of proceeds from sales will be donated to the Community Foundation and the Center for Craft’s Craft Futures Fund: WNC Recovery.

Analogues: North & South, comprising Tema Stauffer’s Upstate and Southern Fiction series, will be on view at Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC from June 9 – August 30 with an opening reception on Sunday, June 9 from 2:30 – 4:30pm.

Tema Stauffer and Dr. Leslie Bickford will discuss the photographs in Southern Fiction, on view in the Rutledge Gallery of the Winthrop University Galleries through October 6. Dr. Bickford has taught widely in the areas of twentieth-century American literature and African American literature. Her research interests include investigating the ways in which hegemonic discourse works to shape subjectivity and, conversely, in understanding the ways in which peoples othered by discourse on the basis of race, sex, nationality, or sexual preference resist such inscription through the creative use of language.

A solo exhibition of Southern Fiction is on view in the Rutledge Gallery of the Winthrop University Galleries in Rock Hill, South Carolina through October 6. Concurrent in the Elizabeth Dunlap Patrick Gallery upstairs is a group exhibition, Rites Preserved, featuring visual art, documentary photography, and performance art by Mike Baker, Andy the Doorbum, and Abe Patridge centered around themes of ceremony and divination.  The opening reception for both exhibitions will be on Thursday, September 7 from 5:30 – 7:30 and a conversation about Southern Fiction will take place on Thursday. September 21.