cary herz

Bette Davis
New York City 1979
Photographed by Cary Herz


I have a pretty long list of photographers I admire and look to for inspiration (when I was in school everyone knew me as the girl with the stack of photography books towering over her head), but I can't say there is a single favorite.
The other week a friend of mine, Cary Herz, passed away after a long battle with cancer. She had a strong spirit and was always working on something new despite her difficult health issues.
In the early 70s she documented the women's movement and covered women in sports. She volunteered to photograph children in Guatemala before and after cleft palate surgery, and AIDS victims in Thailand. After a decade of research, her most recent book, New Mexico's Crypto-Jews: Image and Memory, was published chronicling the descendants of New Mexico's crypto-Jews.
Cary was always aiming to inform the world about people they might not know about. She was a great friend and will always be an inspiration.
"Don't ask so much what the world needs. Go out & do what makes you come alive; what the world needs most are people who have come alive."
---Howard Thurman: Theologian, Quaker, Author, Activist

Amelia Phillips