From the mountain villages of Nepal to his hometown of Abilene, Texas, Bill Wright has traveled the world to learn about and photograph other people's lives. The directness and intimacy of his images bear witness to the remarkable rapport that he has achieved with people in many walks of life, from a woodcarver in Tanzania to Aboriginal children in Australia. In fact, as Sam Abell observes, Wright's work is reminiscent of The Family of Man, the most influential photography book ever published.

People's Lives records a photographic journey in celebration of the human spirit. In sixty-nine duotone images taken around the world, Bill Wright captures what is best in people—our joy, love, hope, and resilience. Many of the photographs are accompanied by extended captions in which Wright describes the encounters that produced them. In the preface, he also discusses his photographic career, artistic philosophy, and methods of working. Sam Abell of National Geographic Magazine offers a perceptive assessment and appreciation of Wright's work in the introduction.

The Texas Kickapoo: Keepers of the Tradition is Bill Wright's latest photographic study on American Indian tribes in Texas. Historian John Gesick contributes an historical essay that tells the story of the tribe's migration from the woodlands of the northeast to the deserts of Texas and Coahuila, Mexico. Wright and Gesick followed the Kickapoo during the summer as they worked as migrant farm workers and to their sacred homeland of Nacimiento, Coahuila, where they still live in traditional wickiups and practice the religion of their forefathers.

Abilene photographer Bill Wright worked among and studied the Tigua Indians of Ysleta, Texas, for over six years, making his own distinguished images and collecting documentary photographs of the tribe from among the Tigua themselves and from sources across the U.S. His research in their history, his interviews among Tigua leaders and tribal members, and his magnificent collection of photographs - rare, historic pictures and his own incomparable contemporary images - combine to make a unique modern study of these, our oldest Texans.

The Big Bend is one of the last places left in America that's a long way from anywhere. Maybe that's why it draws such an eclectic range of people, from tourists seeking a brief wilderness adventure to world- weary pilgrims searching for a more meaningful way to live. Certainly it was Big Bend's unexplored remoteness that drew Bill Wright and three high school friends on an Easter break in 1950. Since that earliest visit, he has returned to Big Bend again and again, finding sustenance in its spare desert landscapes and friendships with the people who have found a home there.

In this book, Wright combines deeply observed photographs with a beautifully written text to offer an intimate portrait of the people and the land of the Big Bend. Covering an almost-fifty-year span, his words and images capture both the timeless quality of the region and the changes that have followed in the wake of increasing tourism and human settlement. The heart of the book is Wright's portraits of the people who have added unique chapters to the Big Bend story. From artist Donald Judd, who found the perfect setting for his work in Marfa, to Terlingua and Lajitas residents who gladly forego urban amenities, to the Mexican villagers who have offered him hospitality, Wright explores why so many people have developed an almost mythic attachment to the Big Bend.