The Townsfolk of Round Top: A Real Look at the People of a Texas Tourist Town

One of our favorite discoveries from a recent road trip is photographer Bernard Mendoza, a Round Top-based photographer, who hails from London, worked in the ad industry in Houston, and is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

At The Gallery at Round Top, Mendoza’s moving portraits of local residents, many of whom are no longer with us, underscore this hamlet’s deep-rooted and ongoing sense of community. The series, “Townsfolk,” is memorialized in a sold-out book by the same name, with biographic essays by the photographer’s wife, Marilyn Albert Mendoza.

The Bullock Museum of Austin — the historical trove for all things Texas — owns the entire set. Acquire a series for your ranch house or country cottage, and connect with Round Top’s pioneering citizenry.

Bernard Mendoza’s “Townsfolk,” 9-by-13-inch prints, $500 matted, $600 framed, at The Gallery at Round Top, 201 & 203 E. Austin, Round Top, 979.249.4119.