The downstairs hall of the Crow Museum at UTD has been refitted with local artist Carolyn Brown’s vivid architectural images.
As something of a renegade explorer, Brown traveled the world’s finest buildings — even those she wasn’t necessarily allowed access to — throughout the twentieth century. Now, 21 of her photos of Middle Eastern and European architecture will hang in the downstairs hall of the Crow Museum’s UTD location for all to see.
Her work is a known favorite to UTD curators, who have previously displayed it in the SP/N gallery during her 2018 exhibition “Carolyn Brown: The Retrospective,” in the ATEC Building during her 2022 display “Carolyn Brown and Palmyra: An Ancient City Through the Lens” and even inside the offices of Crow Museum staff like Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History director Michael Thomas.
Embodying a unique perspective on historical monuments, Brown’s newest exhibition “Intersections: Photographs by Carolyn Brown” captures the interactions of humanity across time and space.
Collecting the collection
Graduate program adviser Heather Bowling worked closely with the artist to curate the exhibition. After visiting Brown herself and sifting through the hundreds of potential photographs lying on the tables and across the walls of Brown’s comfortable abode, Bowling noticed how the artist compiled triptychs — a three-part pairing — depicting a variety of scenes.
The format is typically used in religious art, but after looking more closely, Bowling discovered a common beauty that the triptychs all had: stories of human connection, despite or because of changes. Through the curation of the exhibit, Bowling hopes students can examine, ponder upon and discover what hidden, unique connections each piece has to share.
“You’re always looking at things in comparison to one another,” Bowling said. “She’s doing this thing where she’s putting [scenes] together as a sort of meditation on the language and writing and seeing what they have in common. That’s what I love.”
A personal favorite of Bowling’s is “Hagia Sophia,” taken in 2015 during Brown’s exploration of Istanbul, Turkey. The piece flaunts all kinds of intricacies embedded within the mosque’s interior. One’s eye first follows the circular divisions; however, when examined more closely, the specific artistry of each religion proves to aesthetically complement each other. Despite being crafted by artists across hundreds of years, the work remains well preserved.
While newer architects have added their own trace — modern additions — to the hub of stories hidden within the walls of the mosque, Brown’s imagery illustrates how centuries of modification is beautiful not just within each period, but also as a part of the much longer dance through history.
In curatorial work, almost no detail is a mistake. From the exact color code of the wall’s paint to the height and angle of each artwork, art curation is a heavily intricate and thoughtful process. And so, it’s with great intention that this piece is placed at the very beginning of the hall.
“[‘Hagia Sophia’ was] the photo that best embodies the show,” Bowling said. “She captured the natural light that comes from the sixth-century windows and the 19th-century changes. It’s this intersection of modern and ancient. This is such a hard thing to capture in one photo, but she has done this very clever thing.”
A seasoned artist; a layered history
Brown’s work, following in the steps of other exhibitions like “[_____] Mirage,” where projections, musicality and artistry merged into a 20-minute display, is deeply interdisciplinary.
UTD art history professor Ali Asgar Alibhai has been a long-time fan of Brown’s, crediting her as a notable part of his journey into pursuing the life of an Islamic art historian.
“She is truly a photographer of humanity,” Alibhai said. “If I asked somebody else, ‘How would you describe an Islamic art building,’ often people will approach the subject and assume that a lot of it is just the same thing everywhere, but what Carolyn does is that she goes in really looking at the beauty of these things.”
In his eyes, several aspects of Brown’s perspective and artwork make her one of a kind. First, due to regional geopolitics, she’s one of a small handful of women in the world who could get access to these historical places. Rarer: she’s one of the even fewer who decided to hold up a camera and document them.
“To capture the beauty of Islamic architecture, you need that discerning eye,” Alibhai said. “You need that eye that can understand how the architecture translates into beauty and that’s something she has really embodied in her photographs.”
As an artist, Brown’s work is captivating. As a historian, Alibhai considers Brown’s photographs to be historical documents, especially given that some buildings depicted in her book “Time” have since been destroyed by bombings. Together, her work offers a unique opportunity for learning and beauty.
“Her archive is an important tool,” Alibhai said. “They are not only works of art but also testimonies to the human experience.”
Alibhai hopes to use her works as a teaching resource for his classes, ensuring the legacy of centuries worth of construction can be passed down to the next generations.
Inspiration, exploration for those who come
Brown’s work is situated in a unique but unmistakable location. Between the Brettell Reading Room, a resource for art students and study space, and a classroom, “Intersections” physically bridges the gap between entering students and education.
While UTD’s diverse population of interests and majors are challenging to cater to, Brown’s wide variety of photographed locations almost guarantees that every student would have some sort of connection to her work.
“I always brag about UT Dallas being a truly global place,” Thomas said. “Carolyn’s work mirrors that. These are historical places. Every place that’s photographed in this exhibition, there’ll be someone on campus that will have some connection to it — maybe they don’t even know it.”
Maybe the photos will somehow enlighten or encourage folks to reach out and travel too.
— Carolyn Brown, artist
Brown sees the exhibition as a chance to inspire students to encounter the world as she did decades ago.
“As a young woman, I was brought up in the grasslands of northeastern Colorado,” Brown said. “I know little of these places other than a few photos in a college art history book. It was a time of enlightenment and it was a life transformed. Maybe the photos will somehow enlighten or encourage folks to reach out and travel too.”
“Intersections: Photographs by Carolyn Brown” will be on display from March 28, 2026 to March 28, 2027 in the Crow Museum at UT Dallas at the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum. Students, staff and faculty may visit the exhibition on display free of charge.
“I was inspired by her pairings,” Bowling said. “We’re all connected to each other and her photos don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re things that join us.”