Bill Wright

Bill Wright began a successful business career after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. He co-founded Western Marketing and sold the business to his employees in 1989 to pursue his second career as an award-winning photographer and author. Wright worked among the Tigua Indians for six years researching their history and photographing them for his book, The Tiguas: Pueblo Indians of Texas, that won the Border Book Award, followed by The Kickapoo: Keepers of Tradition, co-authored with E. John Gesick, both published by the Texas Western Press.

In addition, he is the author and photographer of Portraits From the Desert: Bill Wright's Big Bend and People's Lives: A Celebration of the Human Spirit, both published by the University of Texas Press; the Texas Outback: Ranching on the Last Frontier in collaboration with photographer, June Van Cleef published by A&M University Press and Oman, an essay and photographic journal published by Fastback Books.

In 2013, he co-authored with Marcia Hatfield Daudistel and photographed Authentic Texas: People of the Big Bend published by the University of Texas Press. Also released in 2013 was his eBook, A Bridge from Darkness to Light: Thirteen Young Photographers Explore Their Afghanistan, written after an assignment in Kabul to teach digital photography for ASCHIANA, an Afghan NGO for the United States Department of State. Also released in 2013 was his history of a frontier fort in Texas: Fort Phantom Hill: The Mysterious Ruins on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, published by the State House Press.

He is the owner of Southwest Photographic Workshops and has served on numerous national and state boards including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Texas Commission on the Arts. His numerous professional and civic awards include the Leica Medal of Excellence, the Outstanding Citizen award from his hometown of Abilene, Texas, and the Outstanding West Texan by the Texas Chamber of Commerce. He was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He is a member and past president of The Philosophical Society of Texas.

Follow Bill via his website, wrightworld.com