The Big Picture
For 50 years, Texas Highways photography has captured the people, places, and events that define our state
Photographs by J. Griffis Smith
By his own estimation, J. Griffis Smith drove nearly 300,000 miles for assignments across the state during his 30-year career as a Texas Highways photographer and photo editor. That amounts to hundreds of scenic locations where Smith waited for just the right sunlight to get the shot; hundreds of hesitant subjects who needed just the right pep talk; and thousands of static objects that needed just the right creative vision to pop on the page.
“I would imagine the viewer being on my shoulder with me while I was shooting,” says Smith, who retired in August 2014. “I was trying to make it so when someone would look at the pictures in print, it was like they were there.”
Smith’s creativity and work ethic helped define the look of the publication from the 1980s to the 2010s. During his tenure, the magazine built upon its longtime renown for colorful and revealing imagery of the Lone Star State. “Our founding editor, Frank Lively, wanted Texas Highways to be the National Geographic of Texas, and photography has been a part of that mission from the beginning,” says Jill Lawless, a 27-year employee of Texas Highways who served as editor from 2012 until her retirement in 2016. “Griff was a mainstay in shaping the look of the magazine for decades. I often think of his food photography as being transformative for the magazine, among many other subjects.”
Coworkers could often find Smith working after hours, editing slides at the light table, or in more recent years, processing digital images on his computer. But it’s the stories from the road that bubble to the top when Smith remembers his days at the magazine.
Many of Smith’s favorite memories involve musicians. He always traveled with his guitar or dobro and often played his instrument during downtimes.
In 2003, Smith talked his way into photographing Willie Nelson. While he waited for the country music legend to arrive for the photo session at Luck, Nelson’s Spicewood ranch, Smith pulled out his dobro and picked some tunes with an assistant he’d brought along. “We were sitting out there jamming, and Willie showed up and got out of the car, and we started to put our guitars away,” Smith recalls. “Willie said, ‘Wait, wait, we’re going to jam first.’ It was a surreal and memorable moment to be picking and grinning with Willie on the porch.”
Smith’s photographs are known for their distinctive lighting. He often employed a technique known as “light painting” in which he would set the camera for a 30-second exposure on a tripod, and then he’d move around shining lights at different angles while the picture was being made. “I love light painting at dusk, right as it’s getting dark, when there’s still some blue in the sky and I can really make things pop,” says Smith, pointing to the Monahans Sandhills photo in this story (left) as an example.
Upon retirement, Smith released a career retrospective photography book, On the Road with Texas Highways: A Tribute to True Texas, in 2014. He also moved back to his hometown of Caldwell and spent years documenting the artwork of his late father, a prolific sculptor and painter. Smith and his wife, Shirley, love to travel. In the past 10 years, Smith has been to Cuba five times, China, the Netherlands, the Caribbean, Columbia, Alaska, Ireland, and the Panama Canal.
Smith always takes his camera along, forever chasing the perfect shot. “I always try to get a picture I’m so excited about that I can’t wait to get home to process it,” he says. “That was my goal on every assignment—to have at least one picture that I couldn’t wait to see.” —Matt Joyce
Neon Flag (Opener)
Smith took this shot of a cowboy silhouetted in front of the 11-foot neon Texas flag at the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio in 1985. “It was an eight-second exposure, and the cowboy managed to hold real still the whole time,” he recalls.
Monahans Sandhills
Smith says this 2009 photo of Monahans Sandhills State Park is one of his favorites. “I was barefoot in the sand, running around with these two big flashlights, squatting low to the ground while I had the camera on the tripod. That’s why you see all those ripples and the oil pump in the background,” he says.
Trigger
Smith photographed Willie Nelson and his guitar, Trigger, at the Luck chapel in 2003. “At one point, I picked up Trigger and everybody gasped, except for Willie,” Smith says. “He knew that I knew what I was doing. It’s light as a feather—amazing.”
Enjoying this article?
Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
Smith placed a flash behind the pitmaster at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano for this 2000 photograph. “It worked really well by lighting up the smoke and placing him in the shadow,” Smith says.
Giddings Carousel
“I almost got dizzy trying to shoot this one,” Smith says. He used a long exposure to capture the lights of the 1915 C.W. Parker Carousel in Giddings’ Fireman’s Park in 2013.
San Jacinto Monument
In April 2009, Smith photographed a huge Texas flag that was draped on the San Jacinto Monument at San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. He took the shot in the low light of dusk.
Gary Clark Jr.
Guitarist Gary Clark Jr. lived across the street from Smith in Austin when he took this portrait in 2003. “Of course, first we had to jam,” he says, “and so we jammed on my front porch, and then I took a series of photographs in my backyard.”
San Jacinto Monument
Smith faced his fear of heights to get this 2009 sunrise shot from the top of the San Jacinto Monument. “I had been in the viewing section right below, but you can’t really see much out the window,” he says. “I decided to go up there in the open, and I was kind of hyperventilating, but I got the shot.”
The Menil Collection
The Menil Collection in Houston, which Smith shot for a 2010 story, is “one of my favorite art museums anywhere,” he says. “It’s free, and they have incredible contemporary art.”
Festival Hall
While photographing a story about the Round Top Festival Institute in 2010, Smith encountered a piano tuner at Festival Hall. Smith asked the building manager to open the windows at the top of the hall to let the light shine across the interior.
Caddo Lake Bald Cypress
Smith light-painted the bald cypress trees at Caddo Lake State Park in East Texas for this photo, which appeared on the cover of the October 2013 “Boo Issue.” “The light painting gave the picture that scary feel,” he says.
Round Top Fourth of July Parade
“I don’t usually like parades, but I liked that one and that shot,” Smith says. He took this photo of a fire truck leading the 2010 Round Top Fourth of July Parade from the second floor of a bank building that was flying the large flag.
Arkey Blue
Arkey Blue, who owns Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar Saloon in Bandera, met Smith at the bar for a mid-1980s story. “Whenever I visited and paid to get in, Arkey would give me my money back,” Smith says. “He said, ‘Griff, that story you did on us, people came from everywhere. They even came from Iowa.’”
Presidio La Bahía, Goliad
For a story about Goliad and Presidio La Bahía in 2010, Smith stayed the night at the presidio’s Quarters, which are available for rent. “Staying there allowed me to get up early in the morning, and I was able to hit that agave with a kiss of flash to make it pop and look 3D,” he says.
The story of how Texas Highways became a colorful chronicle of the state’s culture and scenery can be traced to the vision of its first editor, Frank Lively.
Lively, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 90, served as editor of the magazine from 1962 to 1990. Blessed with an unusually fitting name, Lively coached, cajoled, and willed the magazine through its transformation from a Texas Highway Department construction and maintenance journal into a general audience magazine dedicated to inspiring Texas travel.
It wasn’t an easy transition. When Lively came aboard, Texas Highways was the latest iteration of a public relations newsletter that started as the Texas Highway Bulletin in 1921. The publication had been covering department topics, such as road and bridge maintenance, gasoline taxes, and employee news, for five decades.
“Frank quickly realized that he could justify including articles on places [the department’s] highways served,” wrote the late Jack Lowry, the magazine’s editor from 1992 to 2006, in a 2004 column. Lively began incorporating articles about historical sites and tourist attractions with an emphasis on Texas heritage. “His ultimate dream, though, was to convert the magazine into a showpiece for Texas,” Lowry wrote.
After becoming editor in 1962, Lively gradually shifted the magazine’s focus. In August 1971, the publication printed its first full-color issue, reflecting its photography and design aspirations.
Texas Highways officially debuted as a general audience travel magazine with the May 1974 issue. The premiere issue explored Native American cultures across the state.
In a 1989 column, Lively reflected on the magazine’s early years and the publication’s struggle to attract readers. “Texas Highways needed an identity, an audience,” he wrote. “We published articles about subjects that we thought would appeal to most Texans. We soon learned that our readers liked articles about history, scenery, travel, and flowers. We placed a lot of emphasis on top-notch photographs and quality color reproduction.”
On April 18, 1975, the magazine’s new identity was cemented when Gov. Dolph Briscoe signed a concurrent resolution declaring Texas Highways “the official travel magazine of the State of Texas.”
Along with Lively, numerous writers, editors, photographers, designers, and administrative staffers have contributed to the publication’s creative evolution over the years. Through their efforts, it has won numerous magazine industry awards while finding new and interesting ways to spotlight the state’s diverse people and terrain.
Lively would be gratified by the magazine’s longevity and continued success, says Jill Lawless, who worked with Lively and eventually became the magazine’s editor before retiring in 2016. She noted that Lively was devoted to the magazine’s readers, always putting them first in deliberations over story ideas and angles. “He knew readers trusted us to bring them the best of Texas with every issue, and his monthly column was like a letter from a friend,” she says. “And he did it all with spirit.”
Longhorn
A longhorn on the Woodward Ranch south of Alpine held still for Smith’s 2019 photograph. “People ask how I got so close to the cow,” Smith says. “The owner was standing right there, and I just moved slowly. I pulled out the flash and popped it, and the cow didn’t even blink.”
Lily Pad
Smith used a point-and-shoot camera to take this picture of a lily pad at a Caddo Lake boat launch in Uncertain on an early morning in 2013. “The water was almost black, and you could see the reflection of the sky,” he says. “All of the lily pads are beautiful.”
