Peter Herzog

Featured Artist

Dates: April/May 2024

Peter Herzog was born in Coburg Germany in 1943. In 1952, he moved to the United States, when his mother married a US soldier, making him an Army brat that moved around to different places such as Virginia, Louisiana, Texas and eventually to Ohio where he graduated from John Adams High School in Cleveland. He then decided to follow in the footsteps of his Stepfather and joined the Army in 1964, in 1968 he served with the 10th Cavalry in Vietnam.

After returning home to the United States in December 1968, changed forever, in 1969, he visited a friend whom he had served with in Germany, here in Montana and moved here a month later.

He attended Eastern Montana College (now MSU-B) and during this time met his wife, Carole, and they settled down for the next 30 years. In the summer of 1999, Pete took a job in Seattle, WA as the Controller of a Mechanical Insulation Company until he retired in February of 2011, when he moved to Maricopa, Arizona. Three years later, Pete and Carole moved back to Billings, Montana. They have been married 50+ years. They have two amazing children and 3 grand kids, all boys.

Asking Pete what draws him to photography he said “About 18 years ago I received a black and white portrait for Christmas, and it was of my younger nephew and that is what got me started in photography. At that instant, I formed a connection with that image and decided that I wanted to be a photographer and shoot images that will allow me to freeze those moments and feelings in time.” He went on to say, “Photography is all about the subject, composition and light. In addition to that, I want my images to convey emotion. The world we live in is not a perfect place and some of my images will show that very thing. I try and tell it like it is through my photography. I want to bring out the beauty that we find in nature. The feeling in your soul when looking at a majestic landscape as our heart slowly beats when experiencing the Southwest’s amazing colorful Sunsets, when the blue-green ocean waves crash into the rocky shores we feel alive, and the simplicity of puppies, kittens and babies. A lot of us look at the world around us through rose-colored glasses and only see what we want to see. Hopefully through my images people can see and feel the world the way it really is.”

Suffering from PTSD, photography is my therapy. I can go out to take pictures in the morning and the next thing I know it is afternoon. Time just seems to fly, I love it.

One final word from the photographer: “Talk is cheap, it cost money to buy Whiskey.”

SOME OF PETER’S WORK