Bio for Hershel Womack

I was raised in Shreveport La and was privileged to have a father who wanted me to see our country and who gave me a Kodak camera and encouraged me to take lots of photos on our trips. My senior year in high school I was privileged to work for a excellent photographer, TC Smith and continued to work for him off and on for a couple of years. My first real cameras were a 4x5 view camera and a 4x5 Speed Graphic. I then got a 21/4x 21/4x twin reflex and lastly a 35mm Zeiss Ikon SLR. Camera wise I stared in reverse from most photographers. I received my undergraduate degree in photography from Sam Houston State University and my Masters from the Institute of Design in Chicago at IIT. I worked on oil and gas pipelines to help pay my way through school. I worked as a newspaper photographer for a couple of papers and later as a photographer for two galleries, the then National Collection of Fine Arts and National Portrait Gallery under the wing of the Smithsonian in Washington DC. After DC I worked for an advertising and commercial photographer John Mason, in Houston.

After finishing my masters at ID I taught photography for over 30 years until my retirement from Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas, which later became the College of Media & Communication. Since my retirement my wonderful wife, Jamie, and I have traveled extensively in the US and especially overseas. It is my son’s employment as a pilot with United Airlines that has made possible our many trips in the US and particularly those overseas which would otherwise would have been most limited. Jamie, a nurse and who is still working has to be about the best travel guru, planner, and organizer one could ever have as a partner. I am extremely lucky to be married to such a person whose giving personality and interactions with people make our traveling experiences so smooth, pleasant, and enduring.

We’ve been to many spectacular places and had many fantastic travel experiences, but it is the experiences we have meeting and photographing people throughout the world that most touches our souls.