Maurice “Bud” Hirsch

Webster Arts members are at the heart of what we do. For our first installment of a new series, Member Monday, we are thrilled to introduce you to Bud Hirsch.

Maurice “Bud” Hirsch, a St. Louis native, has been a photographer for over 70 years. His experience spans from a Brownie Hawkeye to modern mirrorless cameras. He has bred, trained, and shown Paso Fino horses for over 30 years, is a poet with five collections of his work, and has a PhD in Accounting from Washington University with many academic articles in his discipline. Bud is also a regular participant in Webster Arts shows, and recently juried our 2023 exhibit, Wanderlust.

Bud’s first darkroom was in a converted half-bath in his parents’ basement. When he and his wife, Marian, came back to St. Louis after college, he built a full black and white darkroom, where his children accompanied him in processing and enlarging images. Bud entered a new phase of his work in 2000 when he moved from film to digital. In 2011 he began traveling in Europe, Cuba, and New Zealand to work on a series of photo workshops.

While his main interests are street photography, hands/feet/heads, and food, he has taken over 70,000 shots at gymnastics meets following his granddaughter for the past 15 years. He is now experimenting with abstractions made with intentional camera movements and multiple exposures, saying “It’s time for an old dog to learn new tricks.”

He says: “I am a storyteller in my poetry and photography. I want to capture a window to the tales one can imagine might have preceded and that follow. Like poetry, where what the listener hears can be interpreted from their frame of reference, so it is with my images as you view them. Each is meant to be a metaphor for you to construe.”

Bud and Marian have been married for 62 years and live in Chesterfield. He is an arts advocate, having been one of the founders of Chesterfield Arts/Arts Unleashed, and was a founding member of The Repertory Theatre of St Louis, serving on the Board of Directors for many years. You can see two of Bud’s photographs in the current Webster Arts show, Unsung, through September 1.