LOCAL EVENTS
Dennis Fagan was a photographer for Lady Bird Johnson and shot many of the iconic photos of her set amongst her favorite flora, wildflowers. The LBJ Museum of San Marcos hosted Fagan to discuss his experiences with Lady Bird as well as his career as a whole.
Dennis Fagan
Ann Burnette, LBJ Museum board member and secretary, introduced Fagan by listing his many accomplishments.
“Since opening the studio in Austin, Dennis has won national and international awards in the fields of editorial, fine art and commercial photography, including Best of Show at the National Addys. Dennis is also a film director who directs video production in Austin and around the state of Texas. Dennis’ work is included in many private collections as well as the permanent collections within the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Harry Ransom Center, the Wittliff Collection and the Polaroid Collection,” Burnette said. “For about 20 years, Dennis Fagan was the principal photographer for Lady Bird Johnson.”
Fagan arrived in Austin in 1975, fresh out of his work as the photographer for his college newspaper in Iowa.
“I had a part time job in the basement of the LBJ Library, and my job was to keep a few film and video projectors as well as audio programs running dawn to dusk seven days a week to the many who visited the museum upstairs,” Fagan said. “That was the first three or four years, but in the later years, [Johnson and I] really got to become friends.”
Through his photography gig with Johnson, Fagan watched her work to preserve some of the United States’ beauty.
“I was a witness to the early work of Lady Bird Johnson in her post-White House efforts to establish new ecological research and practices in Texas. She began with the Texas Highway System,” Fagan said. “Just two years after burying her husband, we saw her roll up her sleeves for that highway program but not aware that she already had planned for a national Wildflower Research Center.”
Fagan got to know Johnson so well that he can look at a photo of her and know exactly what year it was taken.
“She wore her wedding band for years after the president died,” Fagan said. “If I see that, I know what years that was. Or there’s different changes and different things about her hair and stuff that I go, ‘Well, that must be about ‘83 or that’s ‘85.’” Learn more about Fagan at fagan.com.
Above, Fagan with a photo of him and Lady Bird from the past. Below, Fagan with a photograph he took of Johnson. Daily Record photos by Shannon West
