My Story

My name is Mauricio Herrador, and I am a US citizen born and raised in El Salvador. My trajectory as a photographer has been a bit unconventional: I started taking pictures in the 80s in New York, took a decades-long hiatus for an alternate career in physical therapy, and have recently revived my photography practice in the city of my dreams, San Francisco, CA.

Recent Work

After twenty years of not even owning a camera, I began taking pictures again, casually and with my iPhone 3, just so that I could show friends and family back East the breathtaking landscape I was witnessing as I drove while living in Washington State. The great American highway lives there. Driving in my car became a dreamy romance with the road and led me to start playfully taking pictures as I went — it was that or pulling over every fifty yards!!. Hence, the beginning of my Drive-By Series.

Presently, in San Francisco, I am rediscovering my age-old love and need for the street, walking and finding new relationships with the city’s quieter neighborhoods and the occasional, unavoidable iconic excursion.

Deep grief, the kind I'd never known nor endured before, brought me once more back into a more committed practice. My late wife Stephanie, whom I met immediately following my move to San Francisco, showed me life through a different lens in our short, tragic, yet joyful four years together. Even as she faced her potentially early passing, she showed me a rare lust for life and unconditional love I had only yet imagined. I have painstakingly learned to understand and appreciate the inevitability of this duality: that joy and grief share the same sidewalk at once.

Early Work

From 1983 to 1985, I took courses at the International Center of Photography in NYC and graduated from the General Studies Program. Shortly after, I purchased a 4x5 Toyo Field Camera and started photographing the streets of Manhattan until 1990. You can see a small selection of these early images in the Archives section.

During these early years, I worked as a C-Print technician for a few different photo labs in NYC, including Frank Tartaro Photo Lab, which might have been the last to make dye transfers. From 1990 to 1994, I assisted three exceptional New York architectural photographers: Peter Aaron, Wolfgang Hoyt, and Scott Frances.

Exhibitions:

1990 - OK Harris Gallery, NYC

1990 - 92nd St Y, NYC (group show)

1988 - MIRA Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

1986 - International Center of Photography's Faculty Gallery, NYC

Collections:

The New York Public Library Photography Collection includes two of my Manhattan images.