Herbert Provost
- Born
- December 27, 1922
- High School
- Colleges
- Texas Southern University
- Coaching Record
- Titles
- PVILCA Inductee Class
- 1998
- Inductor
- Lloyd Wells
- Sport
A Man for All Seasons
HERBERT JOSEPH PROVOST, who recently celebrated his 76th birthday on December 27, 1998, passed away peacefully on Sunday, January 4, 1998. He was a professional photographer, artist and former championship tennis coach at Texas Southern University (TSU).
"Pro," as he was affectionately referred to, attended Texas Southern University when it first opened in 1948. A graduate of the Progressive School of Photography in New Haven, Connecticut and Winona School of Photography in Winona, Indiana, he worked with Associated Photographers in Kansas City, Missouri and as a Graphics Communications Specialist with the Inter-Collegiate Press, also in Kansas City, Missouri before establishing his own Photography firm, Provost & Associates, in the Houston area fifty years ago.
He served as Official Photographer and Graphics Communications Consultant for all of the historically Black colleges and universities in Texas and Louisiana. For more than three decades he rendered photographic services to over 200 predominately Black high schools in Texas.
A contemporary and long-time friend of Gordon Parks, like Parks he is considered one of the legendary pioneers in the field of Photography. An expert in both individual and group portraiture, "Pro" believed that all people were beautiful on the inside, and that it was his mission as a photographer to illuminate that inner beauty and render it visible on the outside. What began as a hobby quickly became a passion. He received national recognition for his pictures of social events such as dances, banquets, weddings, tea parties, charity functions, club meetings, and collegiate and high school sports events. His photographic genius was widely known throughout the Black community as he captured on film what has been called the very best of the African-American spirit.
His keen photographic eye focused on the spirit of community, independence, and self-reliance that permeated Houston's Black middle class society, especially during the segregation era. Provost developed the motto: "Beautiful people make beautiful pictures." A 1997 KUHT-TV produced PBS video documentary entitled "Beautiful People" (Black Society and Business in Houston from the 1940's through the 1960's) chronicles his photographic work and focuses on the Provost legacy, a reminder of the positive and uplifting things that were happening in the Black community during that period.