2024 was the first full year of Texas Monthly’s makeover. Over the past twelve months, our art team has settled into the redesign that introduced (or reintroduced) new story sections to our readers. With the renovation came the revival of our Working Life column, which highlights Texans with captivating careers (think Casandra Sowards, who sculpts animatronic dinosaurs). We brought back TM Talks, conversations between Texas Monthly staffers and prominent Texans, such as country music star Ronnie Dunn. We revamped Letter From, a series of dispatches from various corners of the state, which took readers along on a Volkswagen road trip through West Texas this March. Our Excursions, Weekender, and Detours columns offer readers the best of the best advice on where to go and what to do when they get there. We featured food photography that will surely make you hungry for more (see Mackenzie Smith Kelley’s glamour shot of a delicious taco rice bowl, below).
This year, our stories introduced readers to the shrimpers working hard to keep their industry afloat, brought to life in stunning photos by Brandon Thibodeaux; a wind turbine technician with a day-to-day that’s certainly not for the faint of heart, photographed from high in the sky by Jeff Wilson; and Dallas homicide detectives, captured in intimate photos by Richard Sharum.
Our photographers took portraits that helped contribute to our portrayals of the wide variety of cultures and walks of life across the Lone Star State. Cheer-coaching legend Monica Aldama sat for Emily Assiran in the Navarro College gymnasium. Peter Yang photographed Hollywood A-lister Jesse Plemons in his Los Angeles home. Andrea Mendoza made portraits of Sunshine Beaumont, a descendant of the Karankawa tribe, on the Corpus Christi coast, which Beaumont’s people once settled. When we weren’t meeting sources for portraits, we were plain ol’ having fun, shooting coastal dive bars, rodeos, small-town movie theaters, and taco joints.
What a year for Texas, and for Texas Monthly’s photographic storytelling.
Photograph by Emily Assiran
Photograph by Chad Wadsworth
Photograph by Brittany Conerly
Photograph by Brandon Thibodeaux
Photograph by Nick Simonite
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Photographs by Eric Ryan Anderson
Photograph by Michael Starghill
Photograph by JoMando Cruz
Photograph by Bill Sallans
Photograph by Peter Yang
Photograph by Andrea Mendoza
Photograph by Wynn Myers
Photograph by Justin Clemons
Photograph by Brian Finke
Photograph by Joel Salcido
Photograph by Richard Sharum
Photograph by John Davidson
Photograph by Brian Finke
Photograph by Chad Wadsworth
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Photograph by Brian Goldman
Photograph by Mackenzie Smith Kelley
Photograph by Robby Klein
Photograph by John Davidson
