Born June 1964 in Stamford, a small farming community in west Texas, Neal grew up in the cattle industry working for the family business, Bowie Livestock Commission Co. He also participated, very briefly, in the rodeo circuit as a bull rider. After graduating from High School, Neal attended Midwestern State University working toward an Art Degree. After his university years he worked in the “C” industries: Cattle, Clothing, and Cosmetics. Ultimately, though, he left his cowboy boots behind and moved into the retail world of clothing working for a prestigious couture clothing store, “David Murray’s”, as a floor manager and assistant buyer in Wichita Falls, TX. Seeking a broader horizon, Neal moved to Dallas where he was introduced to the world of cosmetics. He has now worked in the cosmetics industry for over 30 years with brands such as Bobbi Brown, Nars, Bare Minerals, and Artis.

Neal met his husband, Hugh Nini, in March of 1992. Though Hugh and Neal consider themselves to have been married for 28 years, they took the earliest available opportunity to legally establish their union in 2006 when the state of Massachusetts became the first state in the US to pass marriage equality.

In the late 1990’s Neal & Hugh started collecting photographs purely by accident. The first photograph came from an antique store in Dallas. The photograph was of two men in a loving embrace mixed within random photos of a Dallas neighborhood from the 1920s. Our collection of over 2800 vintage photos of romantic couples spanning the 100 years between the 1850s and 1950s is the basis for our book.

LOVING: A Photographic History shines a new light on the most written about, dramatized, or filmed emotions – love.

The pages of our book portray love, but also courage – the courage that it took to memorialize that unmistakable look that occurs between two people in love.

LOVING: A Photographic History celebrates a loving past – a past that points towards the future. It’s message is for everyone. It’s universal.

Photo of Neal by Bill Westmoreland

Hugh Nini was born in Beaumont, TX, in 1955, the second of seven children. He grew up in Houston, TX, and later owned and operated a ballet school, the Denton Ballet Academy, for thirty-three years before moving to New York City in 2012. Though ballet is his greatest love and chosen career, his first love was the French Horn, where he enjoyed great success as Principal Horn in the UNT Symphony under the direction of Anshel Brusilow. After leaving classical music behind and turning his full attention to ballet, his students immediately, and consistently, began achieving success on both national and international levels. Beginning in 1988 he founded, and served as Artistic Director for twenty-five years, the Festival Ballet of North Central Texas. In addition to the more than 30 repertory ballets, Nini has choreographed two full length ballets; The Snow Queen and The Nutcracker. His production of The Nutcracker was among sixteen other ballet companies’ Nutcrackers to compete in the Dallas Dance Council’s “Best Nutcracker” competition. It swept the awards with thirteen out of sixteen “Bests” including Best Nutcracker.

Currently, he works as a private ballet coach in Manhattan and is on the faculty of the Joffrey Ballet. In his spare time he enjoyed showing his, and his husband’s, Irish Setters at AKC dog shows and at the Irish Setter Club of America’s National Specialty. Post championships and their showing days, their red heads, Ryan, Scarlet, Streeter, and Reba, served full time sofa surfers at home in Dallas. Hugh considers his wonderful husband to be the second luckiest guy in the world. Meeting, falling in love with, and marrying Neal, makes him the luckiest guy in the world.

In the late 1990’s Hugh and Neal started collecting photographs purely by accident. The first photograph came from an antique store in Dallas. The photograph was of two men in a loving embrace mixed within random photos of a Dallas neighborhood from the 1920s. Our collection of over 2800 vintage photos of romantic couples spanning the 100 years between the 1850s and 1950s is the basis for our book.

LOVING: A Photographic History shines a new light on the most written about, dramatized, or filmed emotions – love.

The pages of our book portray love, but also courage – the courage that it took to memorialize that unmistakable look that occurs between two people in love.

LOVING: A Photographic History celebrates a loving past – a past that points towards the future. It’s message is for everyone. It’s universal.