A Photographer's Journey

Maurice (Bud) Hirsch is a good combination of left-brain and right-brain with a PhD in Accounting and a published series of poetry, both sides contributing to his journey as a photographer. He started in about 1950 with a Brownie Hawkeye, next an Argus C3, and an Aires rangefinder camera. His first darkroom was in a converted half-bath in his parents’ basement. In the mid-1950s, his parents built him a “real” darkroom. In high school he specialized in sports photography and became photo editor of the weekly student newspaper and the yearbook. In collage, Bud became photo editor of the University of Pennsylvania’s Record yearbook. Starting then, and for over 30 years, he used a series of Leica rangefinder and SLR cameras. When his wife, Marian, and he came back to St. Louis, he built a full b&w darkroom where his children, especially Jeff, accompanied him as he processed and enlarged images.

Bud moved into digital in 2000 going though a whole series of Canon G cameras. In 2010, he bought his first DSLR, and in 2011 began travelling on a series of photo workshops in Europe. While his main emphases have been street photography, details, hands/feet/heads, and food, he has taken over 20,000 shots of gymnastics following his granddaughter through well over a decade and into college. His workhorse camera through much of this was the Canon 7D Mk II. In 2021, he moved into mirrorless with the Canon R6 and RF lenses.

About Bud Hirsch

Maurice (Bud) Hirsch has traveled from corporate executive to starting a successful business, teaching management accounting, serving as associate dean, writing books and articles in his academic field and in oral and written communications, to retiring and becoming a poet. All the while, he has been an avid horseman and photographer, and has been active in the arts and in his community.

Bud began writing poems in 2000 after his retirement from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) where he was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Business and Professor of Accounting. When one of his best friends and mentor, Carla Cunningham, died after fighting breast cancer for many years, he sat down and began writing poetry with her as his muse. He has five collections of poems: Stares to Other Places (2004) , Roots and Paths (2004), Taking Stock (2009), Rails and Ties (2014), and Bodies in the Creek (2017). Along with Carol Kaplan-Lyss, he presented a concert reading called Change, the Subject, that combined poetry, phootgraphy, and music. He has done poetry readings and his poems have placed in various poetry contests and have been published in journals.

“It’s an interesting path from corporate America to academia to retirement,” Bud says, "from healthy to encountering cancer, and from writing technical books and articles in accounting to writing poems.” Bud and his wife, Marian, were married before his senior year in college. When he graduated, he joined a large publication printer, rose to a vice presidency, and stayed with that company for ten years. He went back to school and received an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Accounting from Washington University in St. Louis. From there, he went to SIUE where he taught for over twenty years. He is the author or coauthor of Cost Accounting: Accumulation, Analysis, and Use; Advanced Management Accounting; and Communication for Accountants: Strategies for Success as well as several journal articles and teaching cases. He was known as innovative in curriculum development and teaching/learning methods—with a heavy emphasis on writing and oral presentations.

Bud was a founder of Waterway Gas ‘n Wash, a chain of car washes based in St. Louis with units in other cities. He has also served on several corporate and advisory boards.

A photographer for most of his life, his photograhs appear in juried gallery shows. He was an avid horseman, breeding, training, riding, and showing Paso Fino horses for over forty years.

After over twenty-five years, Bud retired as a board member of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. He was a founding board member of Art Unleashed, a community-based arts organization, and served on the City of Chesterfield’s Planning Commission and was its Chair. He was a member of the board of the St. Louis Camera Club.

Bud has received many honors including The Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Accounting Educator (1992), the Paso Fino Horse Association Hall of Fame (2004), as well as its Amateur Owner of the Year Award (1998) and its Merit of Honor Award (1986). He was named Chesterfield's 2007 Citizen of the Year, and received Chesterfield Arts' Visionary Leader of the Arts award in 2014.

Bud and Marian, his wife of over 60 years, live in Chesterfield, Missouri.