OKC photographer revisits 'epic' baby picture 13 years later in 'A Dream Waiting to Unfold'

On a September evening as the light turned golden, my 13-year-old daughter Brenna Faire McDonnell struck a sassy pose on the ridge overlooking Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City.

At her feet, which were clad in black Vans with the laces decorated with colorful beads, Oklahoma City photographer M.J. Alexander sprawled in the tall grass, camera at the ready.

As the setting sun slowly slipped below the treeline, they tried different ideas — Brenna leaping into the air, holding her phone out and standing with her hand on her cocked hip — with the comfortable ease of familiar collaborators.

After all, they've literally been working together since Brenna was born.

Alexander took Brenna's picture for the first time mere moments after she made her grand debut June 25, 2010, at OKC's Integris Baptist Medical Center.

And Brenna was just 100 hours old when Alexander took her photo on the front lawn of our former home in Del City, where my husband, Patrick, held our infant daughter aloft against a vast and stormy Oklahoma sky.

It was that striking photo of Brenna that became a key image of Alexander's 2010 photography book “Portrait of a Generation — The Children of Oklahoma: Sons and Daughters of the Red Earth." The subsequent exhibit was shown at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Tulsa Historical Society and state Capitol, and some of the images, including Brenna's baby picture, traveled to England in 2017 for a multimedia show at London's Crypt Gallery.

"She's epic. It's one of my favorites that I've ever done," Alexander said. "It's iconic in that ... it's just a celebration of life and possibilities."

Now, Brenna's newborn photo and her new Scissortail Park portrait are featured in Alexander's solo exhibition "A Dream Waiting to Unfold," on view through Nov. 2 at the Myriad Botanical Gardens' Crystal Bridge Lobby Gallery.

"It's a celebration of Oklahoma and Oklahomans ... and it's gotten a great response," said Emmy French, the Myriad Gardens' public events and art gallery manager.

"People love that we're highlighting regular Oklahomans, and, obviously, her photography is beautiful in and of itself."

Myriad Gardens exhibit ranges from baby pictures to centenarian's portraits

French said she discovered Alexander's work when the photographer applied to be part of Scissortail Park's outdoor art exhibit “Birds and a Feather," which features banners depicting various local fowl species created by 22 local artists.

"I fell in love with her work, so I invited her to do an exhibit here," French said.

Rather than coming up with something for the birds this time, Alexander's concept for "A Dream Waiting to Unfold" is "a sort of Oklahoma family album."

Two stunning landscapes — both previously included in the 2020 group show "Shadow on the Glare," the inaugural exhibit in Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center's third-floor Mary LeFlore Clements Oklahoma Gallery — set the scene.

But mostly, Alexander has filled the lobby gallery with faces of Oklahoma people.

"Basically, I'm taking my two book projects, 'Portrait of a Generation' and 'Salt of the Red Earth' — so the youngest and the oldest Oklahomans — and I'm combining them for the first time and revisiting them," Alexander said, adding that she mixed into the show a few portraits from her many years of photographing Native American events across the state.

Published in time for the Oklahoma Centennial in 2007, her book "Salt of the Red Earth: A Century of Wit and Wisdom From Oklahoma's Elders" features her photos and interviews with 100 Oklahomans born in or before 1907, the year of statehood.

For her Crystal Bridge show, Alexander chose several "Salt of the Red Earth" portraits, including retired Elk City farmer and Dust Bowl survivor Owen Estel "Jack" Knight, who was 101 when he was photographed; centenarian couple Bertha Naomi Nalley Adams, 100, and Roy Alfred Adams, 100, of Pryor; and Norman resident Doris Eaton Travis, the last surviving chorus girl to perform in the famed Ziegfeld Follies, who was 102 when she was photographed and 106 when she died in 2010.

"Unfortunately, all of the elders that we see here have passed on and are no longer with us physically. But I love when they come out to visit us — and I love that now they're connected to a younger generation. To me, their spirits and their thoughts live on, and as long as we remember them ... they're not really gone," Alexander said.

"The idea behind all of this is to tell stories, to remember stories, to pay tribute to our elders. And I hope it starts conversations with people and gets them to reflect not only on the people on the walls, but on the people we have in our everyday lives and how we can appreciate them and listen to what they have to say."

OKC photographer revisits children she photographed for 2010 project

The title for Alexander's Crystal Bridge exhibit, "A Dream Waiting to Unfold," comes from her 2010 interview with then-15-year-old Amanda LaMunyon. The Enid teenager's encouragement to take time with others in the hopes of discovering a "secret waiting to be told, a dream waiting to unfold," is included in the book "Portrait of a Generation," alongside the girl's photograph.

For the follow-up to her "Salt of the Red Earth," Alexander trekked more than 11,000 miles — from the Rita Blanca Grassland to the Tallgrass Prairie, from the Blue River to the Glass Mountains — between May and October 2010 to photograph Oklahoma children.

From champion noodlers to future farmers, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Famer selected just a sampling of the more than 250 Oklahomans — at the time, primarily youngsters from newborn babes to college freshmen — from the now-13-year-old book to include in her Myriad Gardens exhibit.

Among the one-time children are three who are featured alongside more recent photos that show how much they've grown, including Chloe Elizabeth Williams, who was 8 when Alexander took her portrait in a swan boat at the OKC Zoo. She is featured on the exhibit's poster in an idyllic 2018 portrait taken on her 16th birthday.

Alexander's daughter, Allegra Knight, was 13 when the artist took her portrait in the Glass Mountains. The current exhibit includes a photo of her masked daughter with her new husband, Eli Keeling, at their 2020 pandemic wedding.

"She's not the only one who's married now," Alexander said.

Although she is busy with other projects — including "Sound Trekking: Norman," a site-specific, collaborative multimedia project in Andrews Park that she is leading with her husband, composer Edward Knight — Alexander said she would like to catch up with other Oklahomans who were youngsters when she photographed them for "Portrait of a Generation" and take new portraits.

One of two newborns she photographed in the summer 2010 for the project, my Brenna is one of the youngest children who was featured in the book — and her Scissortail Park photo is the most recent in the show. Instead of being held aloft in her father's hands, the 13-year-old stands tall in Scissortail Park.

"It's amazing how she's grown," Alexander said.

'A Dream Waiting to Unfold: M.J. Alexander'

When: Through Nov. 2.

Where: Myriad Botanical Gardens Crystal Bridge Lobby Gallery, 301 W Reno.

Information: https://myriadgardens.org.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC photographer updates 'epic' baby picture in new Myriad Gardens show