Jim Livingston: In The Viewfinder By Nick Gerlich
I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, and I knew I loved photography, said Amarillo photographer Jim Livingston said. “I Googled ‘photography programs,’ and Amarillo College popped up. I thought, well… why not?” After three years of courses, he emerged with a Certificate in Photography, a badge of honor he wears proudly. It is what caused him to be traveling around the Panhandle during February’s snow storms taking photos while everyone else was home trying to stay warm. While that is the short story of how Livingston embarked on his career, the story of how he got here in the first place, and where he’s going next, is far longer.
ribbon of pavement, even though the federal designation has long since expired. He is a partner in the Route 66 Information Center on Southwest 6th Avenue (Route 66), and he takes it as an omen that just took a while to come true. Fortyseven years, to be exact. At the age of 12, his father received a job offer with the Ben E. Keith Company in Texas and was given the choice between relocating to either Grapevine or Wichita Falls. In the late-70s, Wichita Falls was considered the city that had the most upside potential, so they moved there.
It was two years later that his sister gave him an analog Pentax K1000 camera, igniting a passion inside. He fell in love with photography, and, as luck would have it, their From St Louis, With Love next door neighbor was a serious Livingston was born in St Louis photographer with his own dark in 1966, along the 1933 alignment room. of that historic highway through town. He finds it ironic that he “I’d go out and shoot a roll of black finds himself today along that same and white film, and he would help 11
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To El Salvador and Back Livingston found himself in Portland, Oregon, doing ministerial work for a short time and was then reassigned to do photographic work in El Salvador for nine months. It was there, during a period of severe political upheaval, that he grew tired of what he was seeing. “When University life then beckoned, I came home [in 1990], I threw my finding Livingston attending St camera away. I did not want to look Thomas University in Houston, through a viewfinder again,” he the University of Dallas, Gonzaga stated emphatically. and Midwestern State, ultimately earning a double major in his Upon his return, he decided he no undergraduate years and then an longer wanted to toil in the ministry. MDiv, as he had felt a calling into “I didn’t want to teach theology ministry. anymore,” he said. “I did teach at Notre Dame High School for a bit, me process and print the photos. He taught me everything I needed to know about the dark room,” Livingston recalled. “I lived to be a photographer as a teenager. I even hammered broom handles into the ground in our backyard so I could practice with depth of field.”
but I decided to return to school to study sociology. My intention was to one day get my PhD in that field, because I wanted to understand society.” His plans changed, though, and he wound up working for the state of Texas as a mental health professional in Wichita Falls. “I did social work for a number of years, then screwed up my back really badly. I broke a bunch of bones and had problems working. In 2002 I became fully disabled,” Livingston continued. Soon after that he started working for a bondsman in Wichita Falls. “I was familiar with the court system. I did the legal end of all the work in the office,” he explained, but this was short-term as he grew weary of the system and heard the road calling.
I was homeless. I was living on the road with my camera and sleeping in my Jeep.
On the Road “I took off in my Jeep and for the next nine months I lived out of my vehicle. I had a cheap camera and started taking pictures of state parks. That’s how I got back into photography,” Livingston said with a smile. It was a new chapter to a story whose first act had not ended well. continued on page 13 WWW.PANHANDLEMAGAZINE.COM | SPRING 2021
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