Obituary for Frank Parker "Tico" Herrera
Award-winning West Virginia Photographer, Frank P. Herrera, known as “Tico” by most, died from complications of pneumonia February 6, 2021, in Martinsburg, WV.
He had a long career in photography that included teaching, commercial, and fine art photography. He specialized in large format black and white photographs from locations around the world, but his passion was the landscapes and people of his native West Virginia.
Frank Herrera was born in Beckley, WV, and grew up in Morgantown, where his parents, the late Francisco Herrera and Mary Betty “Parker” Herrera, were educators specializing in French and Spanish. He graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in Spanish before transitioning to photography.
Mr. Herrera has been a professional photographer for over 50 years. He has taught at Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV, and the Corcoran School of Art and Georgetown University in Washington, DC, lectured across the country, and been the recipient of state and national awards, including first place in the WV state Governor’s award. In 1986 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to document the landscape of West Virginia within the context of a cluster of three crosses erected throughout the East Coast. The resultant body of work, termed “Cross Reference”, was exhibited across the country and featured in national media.
Mr. Herrera’s photographs can be found in public art collections – including the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution, the West Virginia Permanent Collection, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Polaroid Collection, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Houston Museum of Art – as well as many private collections. He was a founding artist of Photoworks, an art center in Glen Echo Park in Bethesda where he taught photography.
Frank Herrera is survived by his wife, Rebecca Rinehart; son and daughter-in-law Michael and Michele Herrera; two grandchildren, Ava and Evan; and three sisters, Marianne Cedarleaf, Carmen Tucci, and Jesse Joy Herrera.
Services and interment are private. Arrangements by Brown Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be offered at www.BrownFuneralHomesWV.com
He had a long career in photography that included teaching, commercial, and fine art photography. He specialized in large format black and white photographs from locations around the world, but his passion was the landscapes and people of his native West Virginia.
Frank Herrera was born in Beckley, WV, and grew up in Morgantown, where his parents, the late Francisco Herrera and Mary Betty “Parker” Herrera, were educators specializing in French and Spanish. He graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in Spanish before transitioning to photography.
Mr. Herrera has been a professional photographer for over 50 years. He has taught at Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV, and the Corcoran School of Art and Georgetown University in Washington, DC, lectured across the country, and been the recipient of state and national awards, including first place in the WV state Governor’s award. In 1986 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to document the landscape of West Virginia within the context of a cluster of three crosses erected throughout the East Coast. The resultant body of work, termed “Cross Reference”, was exhibited across the country and featured in national media.
Mr. Herrera’s photographs can be found in public art collections – including the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution, the West Virginia Permanent Collection, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Polaroid Collection, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Houston Museum of Art – as well as many private collections. He was a founding artist of Photoworks, an art center in Glen Echo Park in Bethesda where he taught photography.
Frank Herrera is survived by his wife, Rebecca Rinehart; son and daughter-in-law Michael and Michele Herrera; two grandchildren, Ava and Evan; and three sisters, Marianne Cedarleaf, Carmen Tucci, and Jesse Joy Herrera.
Services and interment are private. Arrangements by Brown Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be offered at www.BrownFuneralHomesWV.com