Berkshire Hathaway’s National Indemnity Company was searching for someone to memorialize its home office of more than 65 years before they relocated, they called upon Omaha artist and photographer Larry Ferguson.
“It’s what I do all the time. This is the kind of thing that I’m always involved in,” he says. For the past 35 years, Ferguson has documented the evolution of the cultural and industrial landscape of Omaha as it rapidly blooms.
“That’s just one of those things that I’m really known for—being able to make incredible documents that have an aesthetic sense about them, so that people want to have them. Not just for the information that’s there, but also for the aesthetics that are involved,” Ferguson says.
Ferguson learned that hard work is its own reward from his dad, during his childhood on the family farm near Alliance. His vast body of work is evidence of that. Whether documenting the weddings of Omaha’s elite or being commissioned by the Joslyn to visually capture priceless works of art, his photographic expertise is unrivaled.
He is chairman of the Omaha Public Art Commission, founded the group Public Art Omaha, and spent 10 years working with the Nebraska Arts Council’s artists-in-residence program. He also served as project director on a commission that performed preservation work on the Bostwick-Frohardt photography collection at The Durham Museum.
Ferguson specializes in fine art, commercial art, and social documentation. He describes his take-charge approach to those worlds as “intricately intertwined.” He is also trained in drawing, painting, ceramics, and sculpture. “I love art,” he says.
For two months Ferguson methodically shot every square inch of National Indemnity’s property, located on Harney Street near Mutual of Omaha, working from the outside before the leaves fell and then capturing the interior. He photographed the cafeteria where Berkshire Hathaway held their annual shareholder’s meetings in the 1970s and the tennis courts where former President Jack Ringwalt played.
Where others might see mundane ceiling tiles, Ferguson’s eye finds inspiration for captivating works of photographic art. His rare Cambo Wide camera offers an elongated panoramic format with a two-to-one ratio creating an extremely wide angle not often seen in photography. “For example, this is a little small 10x10 room but I’m able to stand in a corner and photograph almost the entirerroom,” he says.
Ferguson’s images convey the values of strength, stability, and integrity on which the insurance company’s founders, Arthur and Jack Ringwalt, built the company. They believed every risk has a proper rate and that risky classes—such as long-haul trucks, taxis, rental cars, and public buses—should not be rejected. In plain language, Ferguson’s black-and-white photos tell the rich story of decades of promise.
“Real art in a work environment changes the workers,” Ferguson says. His photography will decorate the walls of the company’s new office, located in the Omaha World-Herald Building, serving as daily inspiration for the employees and a reminder of the company’s successful history.
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