Rebecca Webb Wilson, a Vanderbilt University alumna and mother to a University of Alabama student, came to the UA Art Gallery to discuss her most recent book of photography, Well Seasoned, which chronicles the seasons of her life in stunning natural images. Wilson has traveled across the globe, visited 71 countries and multiple continents, and has documented breathtaking scenery, exotic animals, and natives from all over the world.
Wilson described her journey to become a nature photography. She said, “I realized that travel was in my DNA.” Wilson attended Vanderbilt University where she studied Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian. After graduating, she became a stewardess for Pan-Am Airlines where she ignited her passion for exploring and documenting the world’s wonders. These explorations include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in the span of nine days, getting shoved over by a silverback gorilla in Rwanda, and photographing bengal tigers in India.
Well Seasoned is organized into the four seasons of life. Wilson defined summer as the ages between birth and early twenties, autumn as twenties to age forty, winter as ages forty to sixty, and spring as sixty to death. Each season holds new experiences and feelings and for Wilson, her photography from her travels depicts what she felt at these stages in her life. “We become fearful of the things we don’t understand,” said Wilson about the winter stage in one’s life. Despite this statement, Wilson did not seem to be afraid of anything that she had photographed. She exuded a confidence in her work and life that would make anyone believe that she lives in an eternal spring.
becca c murdoch 