If you haven’t seen his website Narrow Larry’s World of the Outstanding by now, then click on over — you will be in for a treat. “Narrow” Larry is a longtime advocate for the documentation and preservation of handmade works of art and architecture by self-taught artists.

Houston architect, he has been traveling the country for the past 20 years to photograph both preserved and endangered folk art environments as well as meet the people who created them. During those same 20 years, he has worked as a volunteer for Houston’s Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, organizing and leading public tours throughout the country, helping to both increase awareness for this under-recognized art form and raise support for individual artists.

His photography has appeared in numerous books and journals worldwide, and his website is considered a major information resource on visionary folk art.

We “virtually met” when he provided the guys from Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations some photos for their first book, which I happened to be designing. We finally met face to face when he was our tour guide for Houston’s infamous Art Car Parade.

You want to know about Dionicio Rodriguez’s trabajo rustico environments? Ask Larry. The latest news in the folk art world? Ask Larry. Need an awesome tour guide for the best Houston has to offer? Ask Larry.

Happy birthday, Lar! Thanks for all of the great folk art finds over the years! (it’s all about you today …)

Published Photography

• Self Made Worlds: Visionary Folk Art Environments   Aperture Publishing, 1997

• Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations   Kansas City Star Books, 2002 (numerous photographs, including cover photo)

• Eccentric America   Bradt Travel Guides, 2004

• Detour Art   Kansas City Star Books, 2007 (numerous photographs)

• Outsider Art Soucebook   Raw Vision Publishing, 2009 (numerous photographs)

• The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Folk Art   The University of North Carolina Press, 2010   (numerous photographs)

• No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston   Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2009 (numerous photographs)

• Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists   Princeton Architectural Press, 2007   (numerous photographs)

• Raw Vision: International Journal of Intuitive and Visionary Art, Outsider Art, Art Brut, Contemporary Folk Art, Self Taught Art (Fall 1997, Fall 2006, Winter 2006, Summer 2010)

• Coast to Coast Travel-o-pedia   Kansas City Star Books, 2009 (numerous photographs)

• Weird U.S.   Sterling, 2004 (numerous photographs)

• Weird Ohio   Sterling, 2006  (cover photograph)

• Weird Georgia   Sterling, 2006  (cover photograph)

• Weird Kentucky   Sterling, 2008 (numerous photographs)

• Architectural photography for Alliant Energy / Interstate Power and Light of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 2006  (Ad campaign promoting energy-efficient building construction.)

Exhibitions of Photography

• “Still Worth Keeping: Communities, Preservation and Self-Taught Artists”  South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC, 1997

• “Self Made Worlds: Visionary Folk Art Environments”  Traveling exhibition curated by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, 1998 – 1999

• “Between Fences”  Grassroots Arts Center, Lucas, Kansas, 2006

• “Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists” The John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 2007

• “Second Chances: Folk Art Made from Recycled Remnants” San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, 2011

Permanent Collections

• South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC

• The John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI

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