American Stillness - Kat Wilson

Tourist Trap

Tourist Trap began during the 2026 TAAS + Mount Sequoyah artist residency, where I was both an artist and the residency photographer. As one of the locals, I found myself giving rides, finding materials, recommending restaurants, sharing town gossip, and introducing visiting artists to Arkansas. I loved being a townie. The residency focused on the Ozarks and storytelling, and somewhere in the middle of all that I began thinking about hospitality, experience, and place as another way to make a portrait.

The first iteration of Tourist Trap debuted on the Fourth of July, combining photography, installation, food, drink, objects, atmosphere, and storytelling. It became the starting point for a much larger body of work exploring portraiture through place and experience.

Tourist Trap is currently in its research and development phase. I am pursuing artist residencies, grants, publishing opportunities, and institutional support that will give me the time and resources to see how far the project can go.

Like every body of work I’ve made, Tourist Trap begins with the same question: What else can a portrait be?

American Stillness

American Stillness began while I was traveling across the country making photographs to mark America’s 250th anniversary. I was thinking about America, looking at its landscapes, and feeling a little like I might be one of the last photographers traveling all this way to make an image before AI could make something just as beautiful without ever leaving the house.

But traveling to make these photographs also introduced me to the tourist traps, roadside attractions, stories, people, and strange places along the way. That experience ultimately led to Tourist Trap.

The two bodies of work have become intertwined. Tourist Trap uses hospitality, conversation, storytelling, objects, food, and atmosphere to create an experience around encountering American Stillness. It slows down the act of looking and gives the photographs a sense of place that cannot be generated.

Together, Tourist Trap and American Stillness are my new obsession.