Wyman Meinzer is the only official State Photographer of Texas, named so in 1997 by the Texas State Legislature and then Gov. George W. Bush, an honor he still holds today. He was raised on the League Ranch, a 27,000-acre ranch in the rolling plains of Texas. Since then, he has traveled to every corner of this great state and all points in between in search of the first and last rays of sunlight in its magnificent sweep across the Texas landscape. Meinzer graduated from Texas Tech in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management and was voted Outstanding Alumnus in 1987 by the department of Range and Wildlife Management at Texas Tech University. He also received the Distinguished Alumnus award in 1995 from the School of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

 

In august of 1999, Meinzer was honored to give the graduation commencement address at his alma matter Texas Tech University. During his 12 years as adjunct instructor in communications at Texas Tech University, Wyman was selected as Agriculture Communications Teacher of the Year in 2005. In 2009 he received the Distinguished Alumnus award from Texas Tech University in recognition of outstanding achievement and dedicated service. Post graduation Wyman spent five years as a professional predator hunter on the big ranches of the rolling plains.

 

During this period he worked to perfect his photographic skills and now, after 33 years as a professional photographer, Wyman has photographed and /or written 24 large format books, and his images have appeared on more than 250 magazine covers throughout America. His images have appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic Books, Natural History, Ebony, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Audubon, Sports Afield, Field and Stream, Outdoor life, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Highways, Korea GEO, German GEO, Das Tier, Airone, Horzu, BBC Wildlife, and a host others. Honors include: Official State Photographer of Texas by the 75th Texas State Legislature, the John Ben Sheppard Jr. Award from the Texas State Historical Foundation for contributing to the preservation of Texas History through writing and photography, 1997 National Literary Award for the book, “Texas Lost: Vanishing Heritage” (with author Andrew Sansom), the San Antonio Conservation Award for the natural history book, “Roadrunner”, the 2003 “Star of Texas Award”, from the Gillespie County Historical Society with author John Graves for their collaborative work, “Texas Hill Country”, and in 2011 the dual awards of “Texas Heroes Hall of Honor”, from the Frontier Times Museum in Bandera, Texas, and The A.C. Green Literary Award, presented to a distinguished Texas author for lifetime achievement.

 

Resources:

 

Wyman Meinzer

 

Eliot Porter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Porter/

 

Ernst Haas

 

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