Snakebite Victim and Son

Funeral Home Greeter

Bert Turner, Funeral Home Greeter Brady, Texas.  Mr. Turner's wife was buried by this small town funeral home. He started hanging around an greeting the mourners, that is how he got the job as official greeter. copyright Will van Overbeek

Flying Naked Baby

Here is a portrait of my young friend Lucy one of my favorites from the studio.

Mary at the Alamo

       Here is a Polaroid of my wife Mary standing in for a test shot at the Alamo in 1989.
       The battle of the Alamo was fought from February 23 - March 6, 1836.
       copyright Will van Overbeek

Wonder Woman Adrianne Palicki

Seen here on the set of Friday Night Lights, where she played the resident bad girl. Palicki has been chosen to portray Wonder Woman in the up-coming series. copyright Will van Overbeek

Russian Sunbathers

March,1984, the Soviet Union had not broken up yet, but the ice on the Neva River was breaking up as it flowed past the Peter and Paul fortress in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). The sun was out so it was the perfect time to sunbathe Russian style, standing up. copyright Will van Overbeek

Norway Sumo Team

I guess that Manhattan is the mecca of street photography. Everybody's out walking, in all weather and all times of day. I'm walking by Madison Square Garden, on my way to an appointment, and there they are, The Norway Sumo Team, looking for a snack. The guy offered to pose for a picture, but why spoil a perfect moment?   copyright Will van Overbeek

Pinetop Perkins Bluesman

Born in Belzoni, Mississippi in 1913 Pinetop Perkins is one of the original blues piano players.  Perkins was featured on the King Biscuit Time radio show broadcast from Helena, Arkansas in the decades before World War II.  Pinetop is still going strong appearing around Austin weekly and is touring this spring.

copyright Will van Overbeek  

Jimmy Carter Tijuana

    It was 1990, Jimmy Carter and couple thousand volunteers were building 200 houses on the outskirts of Tijuana. I was commissioned by the Discovery Channel Magazine to shoot a cover portrait. Originally there was to be an hour to photograph the ex-president, this somehow became three minutes. While the Polaroid was developing, and with the press handler's hand on my shoulder,  I managed to shoot half a roll of film.  In the end everybody seemed happy.  copyright Will van Overbeek
  

Texas Aggie Cadet Corps

The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets is the perfect photographic subject.

 You could not ask for more than buff youngsters acting out their militaristic fantasy life. 

Copyright Will van Overbeek

The fish get very excited during the final seconds of a close game.

 Hazing is not allowed at A&M, this is Physical training.

 Catching butterflies (see above)

"Quadding" , a birthday celebration

"Cush Race" winner

 Taken to the "Grode Hole"

"The Corps welcomed their first female members in 1974"

  These pictures are excerpted from my book Aggies, Life in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M (1982 Texas Monthly Press).  The book grew out of an article which I had originally proposed to Texas Monthly Magazine.

  The original silver prints from which the book was printed are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, prints can also be found in the collections of the Harry Ransom Center and the Briscoe Center for American History in Austin.