"It was really a culmination of two of my lifelong pursuits – photography and history," Hersch told Insider.
Since he received his first Kodak Instamatic with flash cubes in the 1960s, Hersch has had a life-long passion for photography. He's shot with everything from Polaroids and Brownies to Pentax, Canon, and an assortment of other DSLR cameras.
"I grew up in Boston and Washington, DC, and I would immerse myself in the local history at home and when I traveled," he said. "Like many, I discovered the works of some of the pioneers of black and white photography: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cervin Robinson, and William Henry Jackson, among others."