San Antonio recently lost a highly visible artist. Rick Hunter was probably San Antonio's most known photographer when he died last week of pneumonia.
Facebook may seem an odd place to take the measure of a man, but if you go to Rick Hunter’s Facebook page, the tributes number into the hundreds.
"Rick Hunter was a colleague of mine at the San Antonio Express News," said Hector Saldaña. "I think of a very encouraging person, I think of a guy that loved people, it was evident in his photographs."
Chris Duel knew Hunter, and in the course of doing extended radio interviews was able to tell Hunter that he thought he was the "San Antonio Jack Kerouac of photography."
"Like Kerouac he was larger than life, like Kerouac, he traveled everywhere. If you go back and look at him, he had these great leading man looks," Duel said.
And his photographs are what make Hunter stand apart. Not any one style, not any one subject matter, not any one place dominated his creativity -- though South Texas played large.
"They are evocative, they are moody, they are colorful," Duel said.
Many of his pictures are taken of cultures to which he didn’t naturally belong and in distant places that could have rejected him.
"I think people must have sensed his authenticity, and his genuine desire to tell their story through photography," Duel said.
"I must say that every memory I have of him is a good one," Saldaña said. "Because he was always a great pal, he was full of energy, and like I said, was a genuine person, and I will miss him."
No funeral services have yet been set.
See a portfolio of his work at: www.flickr.com/photos/rickhunterphoto/sets/
Rick Hunter from dayna dehoyos on Vimeo.