Photographer, Historical Society Founding Member and Longtime Artists’ Coop Tenant Paul B. Herzoff (1946-2025) • The E’ville Eye Information

Longtime Emeryville Artist Co-op tenant and founding Emeryville Historical Society member Paul B. Herzoff handed away on October 11. He was 79 years previous.

Born August 21, 1946 in San Fernando Valley, Paul grew to become obsessive about images at an early age and was not often seen and not using a digicam after the age of 13.

In 1964, Paul moved to Northern California to attend school at U.C. Berkeley, the place he studied documentary social science and philosophy.

After graduating, he continued to pursue his ardour for images mastering portrait, panorama and meals images.

In the early Nineteen Seventies, he documented the phenomenon of personalized van tradition and the nomadic life-style of those who drove them across the nation showcasing his distinctive eye for capturing on a regular basis life. Some of those images are featured in a Smithsonian Museum collection.

Professionally, Paul started his profession as an teacher for the John Swett School District in Crockett, CA the place he labored from 1971-1972. He was additionally the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) Berkeley Studio’s darkroom supervisor.

In 1976, he took work full-time on the ASUC Berkeley Studio the place he headed the Photography Department. Here he made lifelong contacts together with notable photographer Roger Minick.

In 1979, Paul grew to become a images teacher on the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

Paul was an early occupant of the Emeryville Artists’ Cooperative, the place he maintained a studio till 2023. “He threw wonderful parties in his space — a generous spirit to all of us,” famous Sharon Wilchar, longtime Artist Coop neighborhood liaison, including that Paul performed the harmonica alongside the various bands he hosted. “He was always active in our affairs and contributed to our evolution as a cooperative.”

Paul pushed the boundaries of his crafts together with rising applied sciences like stereoscopic coloration images. He additionally branched out to business illustration, portraiture, and documentary images.

In 1987, he married elementary college trainer turned therapeutic massage therapist Susan Koenig whom he grew up with in Southern California and whose lives intersected many occasions.

In 1989, he was amongst a ragtag group of beginner historians that helped discovered the Emeryville Historical Society. He contributed closely to the 1996 Centennial Edition ebook and the Arcadia-published Emeryville History ebook. His data of the rising subject of desktop publishing helped the group enter the digital period together with scanning and structure software program.

His efforts to doc town’s many historic and razed constructions in the course of the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties are foundational to their ongoing efforts to protect town’s historical past.

“He was curious about everything,” Koenig famous of his many pursuits explaining how a easy canine stroll across the block may flip into an “assignment.”

Paul continued to pursue his passions till his well being started to deteriorate in 2023, and his spouse took on his care till his loss of life.

A ebook that includes Paul’s images will likely be featured in a forthcoming ebook slated to be printed subsequent yr.

A memorial for Paul for family and friends will likely be held on January 24.