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Lubbock residents recall photographer Eugene Racamore’s community portraits and wartime service
Summary
Speakers remembered Eugene Racamore as a WWII veteran and community photographer who photographed East Lubbock life from the 1950s into the 1980s, served customers who could not pay, and trained at Wiley College.
Residents and acquaintances recalled Eugene Racamore as a community and commercial photographer who documented life in Lubbock’s East Side from the 1950s through the late 1980s, and who served in World War II, earning four Bronze Stars.
The speakers said Racamore used his G.I. Bill to study photography at Wiley College under Curtis M. Humphreys, then ran a photography business after a brief period in Henderson, Texas, before returning to Lubbock around 1952. Commenters described him as a reliable portraitist who photographed proms, weddings and social events and who often took assignments after a full day’s work at Frito‑Lay.
“Eugene was a community and commercial photographer active in the LBK from the fifties on up through the late [19] eighties,” Commenter 1 said, describing the span of Racamore’s local work. Commenter 2 said Racamore would accept payment later when clients could not pay: “If you didn’t have the money for the pictures that he took, he’d just say, ‘well, pay me,’” and Commenter 3 added, “whenever you can. Pay me how much you can.”
Speakers highlighted details they said appear across Racamore’s images: broad city streets, cattle and cotton that reflect the region’s agricultural heritage, military ties and signs of pride and growing affluence among East Lubbock residents. One speaker described nightclub photographs—identified in the transcript as “Rocky Moore’s nightclub photography”—that show well‑dressed subjects smiling and carrying themselves with confidence despite the era’s segregation.
Participants said Racamore worked at his family’s restaurant at 1703 Avenue A before military service, then returned to civilian life and photography after using the G.I. Bill. Several speakers emphasized that he did not pressure clients for money and that he photographed events large and small, sometimes leaving dinner to take pictures after a long workday.
The remarks concluded by framing Racamore’s photographs as both windows into past lives and mirrors for the present community: “It is a blessing to have these photos, which act as both windows and mirrors to who we were and to whom we can become,” Commenter 1 said, adding thanks to “Mr. Eugene Racamore, the tireless photographer who helped us tell our true story in pictures.”
