Andy Hanson Exhibit Write Up

On Friday, December 6, 2019 Xavier and I went to the Andy Hanson: Picturing Dallas, 1960-2008 exhibit. We both were blown away by some of the celebrities, musicians, politicians and just interesting people that Hanson was able to photograph. I chose the three pictures above to include in this assignment because they were some of my favorites from the exhibit.

Andy Hanson’s story is an inspiration for photographers everywhere. After first getting into photography as a ten-year-old in Falfurrias, Texas Hanson graduated from using a “Brownie” camera and his family’s garage as a darkroom to Texas A&I University, Kingsville. There, he served as editor and photographer of the campus newspaper and the school’s yearbook. He finished schooling at the University of Houston where he received a B.S. in journalism.

During school, Hanson worked in the darkroom part-time for the Houston Post. After graduating in 1955, he became a full-time photojournalist for the Houston Post until 1959. In 1960, Hanson moved to Dallas to work for the Dallas Times Herald and worked there until they closed in December of 1991.

Hanson continued to work as a photojournalist and covered various social gatherings, speeches and other exceptional events. His trademark was his tuxedo which he wore to almost every function he photographed. I think this was a testament to how serious he took his job, as he made it a point of emphasis to fit in at some of the events he was covering. I think this allowed him to gain notoriety as one of the go-to photographers in Dallas as he was able to shoot everyone from the Bush family to Ross Perot to Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman.

Hanson resided in Dallas and worked until his death in 2008. The archive of his work featured in the DeGolyer Library at SMU was a spectacular exhibit to check out. Hanson’s body of work will forever live on and the legend that Andy Hanson was will never die in Dallas photography circles.