Doug Henderson is a native-born Oklahoman(part Cherokee Indian).  He comes from unpretentious working class stock, the son of a welder and the first  person in his family history to have a college degree.

Even as a child Doug was  always  writing, painting,  filming or designing  something.  He discovered  photography as a teenager,  made  dramatic 8mm movies in high school, and wrote a  regular  humor  column  for his college newspaper. His design work  first surfaced in elaborately painted murals on custom motorcycles and vans in the 1970s.

He began making a living in photography in 1985.

In 1987 he trained as a  police photographer in Chicago and began providing photography and graphic design services to create forensic exhibits for court cases.

Doug claims his  forensic  photography, much of which has taken place in morgues, accident scenes and burn centers. has  greatly  influenced  his  life  perspective  and  thus  his design aesthetic.

He says that a person can't be confronted with that much death, pain and suffering and not look at life differently. He sees beauty in common  objects and  scenes  that  most people pass by. He feels that any human being still drawing breath is inherently beautiful. His photojournalistic photography is known to be very empathetic.

His photography of the Oklahoma City Bombing appeared in Newsweek, Newsweek Japan and many other publications. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, National Enquirer, National Examiner, Oklahoma Today, Tulsa World and others.

He has worked all over the USA, in South Africa, Ghana, Cuba, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Uganda, The Gambia, Ecuador, the Andes, the Amazon Rainforest, Columbia, Romania, Belgium, the Galapagos Islands and the Yucatan Penninsula.

Henderson's photography of the castles and forts built by European slave traders along the coast of Africa is part of the permanent display in the Smithsonian Institute's National Musem of African-American History & Culture in Washington D.C. This work can also be seen in his book on the same subject; Slavery's Castles.

His photography has been the subject of a number of exhibitions, most notably at the Philbrook Museum of Art, (2011), the Oklahoma State Capitol, KuonaAfrika, in Belgium, (2012), and Escuela De Fotografia in Havana(2018).

In 1996 Doug began teaching a photography class for Tulsa Technology Center, then later an Adobe Photoshop class. As he puts it, based on what his students taught him about how people learn these subjects, Doug ended up writing textbooks on these topics, and his spin-off business; Now Books. He is the author of Photoshop Now, Digital Photography Now, More Photoshop Now and Photography Now, used in schools and tech centers all over the United States.

His photography is also featured in several coffe-table books; Omaha; Where Imagination meets Opportunity and Tulsa, A Photographic Portrait, Black Hills, Beyond All Expectations, and Gainsville. All published by Riverbend Books of Atlanta.

He lives in a rural area near Owasso, Oklahoma in a home he designed and built.