Cynthia Farah

Cynthia Weber Farah Haines (born 1949)[1] is an American photographer and writer. She is best known for her work on documenting Southwest writers and art and life in El Paso, Texas. Farah has also taught at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) where she was involved with the university's first film studies program.

Biography

Farah was born in Long Island to a military family, and came to El Paso when she was ten.[2] She earned her bachelor's degree from Stanford University, majoring in communications.[3] Later, Farah worked as a production assistant to Otto Preminger,[4] and she worked on his film, Such Good Friends (1971).[3] She moved back to El Paso where she studied for an advanced degree at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).[3] She also married into the Farah family, the owners of the Farah Manufacturing Company.[5] In 1989, Farah became an associate member of the Western Writers of America.[6] She started a three-year term on the Texas Committee for the Humanities in 1992.[7] Also in 1992, she was inducted into the El Paso Women's Hall of Fame.[8] In 1995, UTEP started a film studies program and Farah became the program's director.[9] Farah had a cameo appearance in the Cesar Alejandro film, Down for the Barrio (1996).[10]

Work

Farah's book, Literature & Landscape: Writers of the Southwest (1988) includes photographs and biographies of fifty writers from the Southwestern United States.[11] The Santa Fe Reporter wrote that Literature & Landscape "missed the mark," and felt "incomplete," but that it was also "worth taking a look at."[12] The writers were chosen based on where they lived and their chosen subject matter.[13] Farah enlisted the help of a librarian, Mary Sarber, to discover some of the writers.[13] Later, Farah showed some of the photographs she'd taken for the book in a 1994 exhibit at the El Paso Museum of Art.[14]

Farah and Miguel Juárez worked on a bilingual book about El Paso's murals called Colors on Desert Walls: The Murals of El Paso, in 1997.[15] The book covers the history of murals in the city, includes interviews with ten Chicano artists and color photographs.[15] The El Paso Times wrote, "Farah's photographs, while undersized and too blue in the volume, nonetheless convey a documentary representation of the murals."[16]

Selected bibliography

  • Literature & Landscape: Writers of the Southwest. El Paso, Texas: Texas Western Press. 1988. ISBN 9780874042061.
  • Los Murales: Guide and Maps to the Murals of El Paso. With Miguel Juárez. El Paso, Texas: Junior League of El Paso. 1992. OCLC 36174766.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Colors on Desert Walls: The Murals of El Paso. With Miguel Juárez. El Paso, Texas: Texas Western Press. 1997. ISBN 9780874042368.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Showtime!: From Opera Houses to Picture Palaces in El Paso. El Paso, Texas: Texas Western Press. 2006. ISBN 9780874043037.

References

  1. ^ "Guide to the Cynthia Farah Haines papers related to Literature and Landscape: Writers of the Southwest M2107". Online Archive of California. 2016. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
  2. ^ Peters, Martha (6 November 1988). "Photographer's Book on Southwest Thanks El Paso Library". El Paso Times. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c "Photo Show Portrays 'Women on the Border'". El Paso Times. 24 October 1980. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "To Demonstrate Slide Show Tips". El Paso Herald-Post. 29 November 1975. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Farah, James C. (2007-10-05). "Interview no. 1616". Digital Commons @ UTEP.
  6. ^ "Readers in the News". El Paso Times. 27 September 1989. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Farah Named to State Arts Board". El Paso Times. 7 December 1992. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Ramirez, Renee (20 March 1992). "6 Inducted Into El Paso Women's Hall of Fame". El Paso Times. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Renteria, Ramon (22 July 1997). "Schooled In Film". El Paso Times. p. 1D. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com. and "Film". El Paso Times. 22 July 1997. p. 3D. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Borunda, Daniel (19 March 1999). "El Paso Filmmaker's Work Goes to Video". El Paso Times. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Trimble, Stephen (1989). "Literature & Landscape: Writers of the Southwest by Cynthia Farah". Western American Literature. 24 (3): 269–270. doi:10.1353/wal.1989.0043. ISSN 1948-7142.
  12. ^ Bennett, Kate (16 November 1988). "Southwest Writers Captured on Film". The Santa Fe Reporter. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Benanti, Mary (14 January 1985). "Southwest Writers Captured on Film". El Paso Times. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Levarlo, R. Marina (30 September 1994). "Exhibit Focuses on Southwest Writers". El Paso Times. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ a b Rangel, Jeffrey J. (2000). "Review of Colors on Desert Walls: The Murals of El Paso". The Oral History Review. 27 (2): 205–208. doi:10.1093/ohr/27.2.205. ISSN 0094-0798. JSTOR 3675839.
  16. ^ Peterson, John (2 August 1997). "El Pasoans' Efforts Chronicles Artists' Vision". El Paso Times. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.